THE ESSENCE OF TIMING
Timing—how relevant is it to you?
We live in a time conscious world! Clocks in every room of the house, palm pilots and other convenient electronics programmed with scheduled times, lists on the fridge, calendars dotted with daily schedules, and so on.
From all aspects it would appear that time is a very relevant factor in the lives of most people. For some it starts in the wee hours of the morning, for others it starts at the crack of dawn; still others are affected during the day or even begin their workdays in the late evening or nighttime hours.
As we move through the busyness of the daily schedules we deem necessary, something gets lost in the shuffle. What is that something? Timing…
Let’s look at a couple of different scenarios and see if there we might find a note of familiarity!
Joe (fictitious name) wants to go on an adventure. He considers his lifestyle at the present and foresees that perhaps in six months he might be able to adjust his schedule to accommodate this desire.
Joe is a very methodical, comfortable type of guy, so he scratches his head and decides to draw up a proposal for himself.
His first concern is the fact that he realizes he must be willing to get outside the confines of comfort. To find his capability for making this adventure a reality means convenience is not consistent for continuance. Uh oh! That may present a problem. His concept of adventure in other words will mean that he has to be willing to sacrifice convenience and comfort for creativity! Sure, if one is to go on an adventure, the norm will be out the window.
What denotes adventure? He asks himself readily. Mostly some exciting activity, a venture, a journey or voyage makes up an adventure, according to his English Thesaurus. For sure that’s what he is anticipating!
Determined, he begins to set aside the funds he feels will be necessary for this adventure to take place. Little does he know what is lurking at his door!
The next month Joe receives word that his job is being phased out! How can this be? He is a very adamant, dependable employee, having worked for the Company for years, giving his best.
Joe is devastated, but puts his belongings in a box and heads for his home.
Now what? He begins to scan the internet for job listings. He applies at countless agencies, companies, but as time moves forward nothing develops.
One day while he busies himself in the yard, the word ‘abandon’ comes to his mind.
Immediately he contemplates the purpose of this thought. Here he has been a very successful guy, readily taking care of his lifestyle. But attached to this thought is the reminder of the word ‘adventure’, so now a picture begins to paint on the canvas of his mind!
This one who once had it all together, seemingly, now begins to see himself in a different light. Why? The essence of ‘timing’ is coming into play.
Joe finds himself a year later in a different location, working in a different arena, doing a different thing, truly finding creativity to be a vital part of his life now.
First, he had the desire for something out of the norm, i.e., an adventure. Second, he knew that determination would make it happen. Third, he experienced the devastation of losing his comfort zone, his job. The means of living in a status quo, not striving to keep up with the Joneses, lifestyle was his while enjoying his security. Fourth, he sought for direction to move forward and watch as the adventure began to unfold.
This change for Joe was a direct result of the essence of timing in his life. He didn’t make it happen. A chain of events unforeseen to him took place that brought it to fruition.
Today Joe is continuing in his quest for adventure. He no longer is comfortably settled. He finds life becoming more fulfilling because of the expectancy of not knowing what lies in wait on his journey for adventure!
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This second scenario deals with a young woman named Mary (fictitious name).
Mary is quite the little busybody, of course she doesn’t consider herself such!
She is a stay at home mom and with the activity of her only daughter she finds herself being a child more than an adult. During the day, that is!
Her cell phone is her best friend, because through it she can text and do other tasks at the same time. Yes, she prides herself in her multi-tasking abilities.
Mary has a pretty rigid schedule because she values her time and wants to instill her values in her daughter. Even though her daughter is only two, Mary feels that it is not too early to begin teaching her daughter the ethics of routine and repetition.
It is interesting to note that even amid the activities of the day, Mary has no problem finding out all the latest ‘news’ that goes on in her circle of friends.
She sets her clock on her cell phone when her daughter begins her nap, and then she busies herself getting ‘caught up’ on the events of the day…through texts, conversations, emails, instant messaging. Wow! She has it all at her fingertips and loves it. She has it down to the minute because ‘time is of the essence’ in her lifestyle, yet she somehow overlooks the ‘essence of timing’.
Preparing dinner for her husband finds her engrossed as well in her busy body mode.
When the husband comes in from work, there he finds his favorite ‘little’ girl busy at play while his favorite ‘big’ girl is putting the finishing touches on dinner.
As they sit down to dinner, Mary begins her saga of all the information she has gleaned during the day without even a thought of the ‘essence of timing’.
Hubby helps put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher all the while listening to Mary mouth off about the dissension between her best friend and her best friend’s husband. Then she jumps right into another story that was unbelievable.
By bedtime Mary has completely exhausted herself and her husband with all the drama that she has gathered during the day.
Her husband puts the little girl to bed, kisses her goodnight and tells her a favorite bedtime story while she quickly falls asleep.
As he prepares for bed and hopefully for some quality time with Mary, she is made aware of the essence of timing.
She has been conscientious all day of ‘time’, but it suddenly dawns on her that there is a vast difference in ‘time’ and ‘timing’…
Here she had squandered the better part of the evening on trivial matters of other men’s affairs while neglecting the matters at hand.
Mary felt really bad because she realized that she had not even asked her husband how his day had been, how his job market was being affected by the slowing economy. And now they both were so exhausted that they neither wanted anything but to go to sleep.
Needless to say, after weeks and weeks of this repeated scenario, her husband came home and told her he was leaving.
Mary was devastated and begged him to reconsider. Her husband pointedly explained that it was evident that he no longer held a place of priority in her life because she was too consumed with being busy in everyone else’s lives.
He explained very rationally the importance of the essence of timing. Not time, but timing.
He agreed to giver her a chance to redeem herself and the first thing he requested of her was that she not give him a daily run down of everyone’s private lives.
He appreciated the fact that she showed ‘concern’ for her friends, but she went to the extreme and he asked her to re-evaluate her involvement. He urged her to get a new mindset, to focus on matters of importance, to realize that there is ample opportunity during the course of a day for her and her daughter to be productive in other arenas. He even suggested they visit the local nursing home to give their daughter some interaction with the elderly.
He reiterated the importance of their evening time together…yes, it all boiled down to the essence of timing. She agreed and began to make adjustments, even though it
was difficult at first. Mary began to see that her focus became outward rather than inward as she took her daughter to various outings. It was evident that she clearly began to see herself in a different aspect as she ventured beyond the busybody state.
She found as she touched the hand of the elderly lady who was blind it brought a smile to the elderly lady’s face. And when her daughter began to sing ‘You are my sunshine’, those seniors in the hallway began to clap and sing along with her.
Yes, life began to take on a different flavor for Mary, her daughter and her home life.
Rather than focusing on all the ‘drama’ of her friends, she focused on the ‘needs’ of others. She began to look forward to sharing with her husband the joy that she brought to the homeless woman at the grocery store when she gave the woman a small bag of groceries, and the eight year old cancer child in the pediatric ward who made a camaraderie with Mary’s two year old . Mary began to find it was the ‘little things’ in life surely that meant so much, especially to those less fortunate than she and her family!
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Yes, the essence of timing is vital in our society today. Life is changing constantly and we must change with it. We don’t have to condone all the changes for sure, but we must be abreast of how change affects our lives and be vigilant to be sensitive to
the essence of timing. Many times we see dramatic events take place in our lives because we find ourselves at the right place at the right time, a virtue of timing.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:1, ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven…’
In this arena we can use discernment and find blessings beyond our wildest dreams. When we allow God to use us to affect someone else’s life, we begin to focus on timing, we look for opportunities for God to expand His timing through our lives and in the process bring hope and encouragement to those who don’t have a clue what the ‘essence of timing’ entails! Let’s go for it!
Oh, by the way, I hope that you found yourself somewhere in one or both of these scenarios—I did!
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