Timing

So many things in life depend on timing. In our working life we have to leave home at the right time to get to work on time – perhaps allowing for delays along the way. If we miss a bus because our timing was out we may have to wait 15 or 20 minutes for the next one, and that may mean we are late for an important meeting or something that could change our lives for the better.

"I didn't know the clock was five minutes slow!" doesn't help somehow, does it?

So when I was doing the Alpha course some years ago I made sure I was there on time and ready to eat! As you may be aware, halfway through the course I found myself asking Jesus to come into my life. I didn't plan it to be that way, it just happened. I guess it was God's timing not mine. Then I was concerned about being a smoker, would God expect me to stop smoking right away now that I had become a Christian in the true sense. When David Brown, in response to my question, assured me that God was more interested in me as a person than in whether I smoked or not, it was a relief. I couldn't see me giving up at that time. David also said that I would know when it was time to give up smoking. So I never set myself a target as to when that would happen. In truth I didn't really think it would anyway.

Then I booked a holiday for November 2009 to see the Holy Land and the places where Jesus walked and lived, and at that time came the realisation that I really couldn't afford to continue smoking, from either a financial or a health point of view. So I saw the Practice Nurse at the Surgery and stopped smoking. Although I had one or two when I returned home from Israel that was it. I stopped. Never any doubt. That was it.

Not sure why it happened when it did, perhaps it wasn't my timing again. God always knows when the time is right. We just have to learn to wait on God and he will somehow let us know what to do and when to do it.

Lord, give me the patience and understanding to do your will in your own time. To be where you want me to be when you want me there, and to be ready and willing whenever that should be. Amen.

Jim Finch