Timing, they say, is everything. I've been thinking about this since watching the stock market bottom out at 6500 and hearing really smart financiers that run large corporations speak (in person) lately [one secular, one Christian...both profitable in bearish times]. If i were in a relationship, or already in school, either way, i would be investing in the stock market. But i'm not, so i'm not. Its a timing issue.
[i'm about as weird as they come, and without either of those components in life, i would be a day-trading maniac were i to get in now, and ironically, winning might be the worst thing for me right now in life]. So i wait.
It's kind of like in an action movie--if you think about it, everything goes down to the last-possible-split-second-heroic-action, which, if any one of about 176485 variables were changed in the slightest at any point in the movie, would result in catastrophic failure instead. It's all about the timing.
I've also heard a lot of people talk lately about how 'God's timing is perfect.' I agree with that statement on its face value, but i'm not sure they're using it correctly. I feel like its a cop-out. 'Hey Bob, you just showed up 27 minutes late....ah yes...but God's timing is perfect.' Bob's timing, obviously, is not. Neither is mine for most things in life. 'Ah, yes, Matthew, but you've learned so much in the latent times and periodic delays in your life,' i hear people say. Yeah, maybe.
OR MAYBE I SCREWED UP BIGTIME!?
Perhaps its just Colorado Springs, living in a bubble of veritable bliss and organic paradise of all things spiritual and conservative, but life to me feels like people have lost a sense of urgency that is easily covered up by the catch-all perfection of God's timing.
I think we should instead start viewing it as, assuming we chalk it up to the flawless harmonic precision of the Divine Being's nature, Him graciously working out plans for His glory in spite of us being late, early, fitting, starting, and generally screwing things up.
I'm not saying we always get it wrong, but we don't always get it right, either. There are things that people approve and smile upon as if they please God when in reality, we should be questioning them. God does indeed have a season for everything, perfect timing under Heaven, and He is Sovereign. However, He is not the grand master of puppets and we are left to our own devices in many ways. And many times, our devices do not operate in as close accordance with His will and nature as our timing devices that govern our routines, daily Starbucks runs, and workout sessions...they are hardly hallmarks of mechanical precision....
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Landing and Taking Off in a Crowded Sky
So i am hoping that Elle Woods the Fox News Legal Analyst will be my blogging accountability partner, as i told her she should blog and catch us all up on life during and after her vacation with her significant other. I have let this slip for about three weeks, and yet I wonder....is anyone reading?
And then i realize, that is not why I must write, in a variety of venues and avenues. Words must be released from the soul just as water must flow through a dam. For whatever reason, i feel God has blessed me with recall and memory and good retention, but this can be a curse, for it enables me to wait too long and catch up all at once.
I used the phrase 'linguistic usurpation' today. Actually i misspoke and said ursurpation, and i realized, it has been too long since i read Shakespeare [act i of the Tempest on the I-pod en route from Memphis to DC doesn't count]. Truthfully, i realized how much i love words. And actually, how i've missed the more exquisite ones lately. I hope they have missed me as well.
Alright, enough of my meandering aimlessly through cyberspace....airplane runways: one of the most introspection-inducing books i've read is by a man who lost his wife, his ministry, and pretty much all hope and faith in anything at one point in his life. He wrote a 'fiction'al account of one of his closest friends/client's life [he is a Christian psychologist, this author] in which one of the lines stunned me for how real and analagous to my own life it is: "you are like a pilot who can do anything he wants once flying, but has no idea how to take off or land." the man he is referring to had an excess of activity in his life, but was going down a road of insanely high expectations, no 'margin' in his life, and was having heart problems.
this is exactly where i was headed before coming to Focus.
As I've been literally taking off and landing at seemingly every airport in the country lately, i've been hearing this quote echo back in my cranium again and again. I've recently taken off, and landed, successfully. What i mean by that is that i'm finally back in a rountine, and have gone from living a 'normal life' to traveling 24-7, and back again. It might not sound like much, but it's been quite significant.
That's all i got, and i suppose its not much...at least, not to anyone else. For me, this is a corner i have not been able to turn for years. I think sometimes God lets us go long seasons before things change, so we'll appreciate them more.
And then i realize, that is not why I must write, in a variety of venues and avenues. Words must be released from the soul just as water must flow through a dam. For whatever reason, i feel God has blessed me with recall and memory and good retention, but this can be a curse, for it enables me to wait too long and catch up all at once.
I used the phrase 'linguistic usurpation' today. Actually i misspoke and said ursurpation, and i realized, it has been too long since i read Shakespeare [act i of the Tempest on the I-pod en route from Memphis to DC doesn't count]. Truthfully, i realized how much i love words. And actually, how i've missed the more exquisite ones lately. I hope they have missed me as well.
Alright, enough of my meandering aimlessly through cyberspace....airplane runways: one of the most introspection-inducing books i've read is by a man who lost his wife, his ministry, and pretty much all hope and faith in anything at one point in his life. He wrote a 'fiction'al account of one of his closest friends/client's life [he is a Christian psychologist, this author] in which one of the lines stunned me for how real and analagous to my own life it is: "you are like a pilot who can do anything he wants once flying, but has no idea how to take off or land." the man he is referring to had an excess of activity in his life, but was going down a road of insanely high expectations, no 'margin' in his life, and was having heart problems.
this is exactly where i was headed before coming to Focus.
As I've been literally taking off and landing at seemingly every airport in the country lately, i've been hearing this quote echo back in my cranium again and again. I've recently taken off, and landed, successfully. What i mean by that is that i'm finally back in a rountine, and have gone from living a 'normal life' to traveling 24-7, and back again. It might not sound like much, but it's been quite significant.
That's all i got, and i suppose its not much...at least, not to anyone else. For me, this is a corner i have not been able to turn for years. I think sometimes God lets us go long seasons before things change, so we'll appreciate them more.
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