“To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:” Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV
Every week when I’m giving a lesson at the home of a piano student, I hear a rooster. Yup, a rooster. At 5:00 PM. At first I thought I was confused and hearing something else, until it happened again.
Turns out it wasn’t me who was confused. It was the rooster.
Yes, he was doing what he was supposed to do. What he was created to do. But his crowing wasn’t serving its intended purpose.
His timing was off.
In what ways is my timing off?
Am I doing something routinely that I should change or not even do anymore?
I have this fantasy of quitting everything, selling everything, and starting over. I’ll never do it, but I’m often tempted to just scrap stuff. But it’s more important to take inventory and consider changes before doing anything rash.
What must we do while we take inventory and consider change?
We must pray. “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Romans 12:12 ESV)
We must be patient. “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8 ESV)
We must wait. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” Psalm 37:7a ESV (there’s that patience again)
We must hope. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV)
We must trust. “But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan.” (Micah 4:12a ESV).
We must follow. “The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9 ESV)
We must surrender. “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” (Proverbs 19:21 ESV)
In doing these things, God will work in us, helping us to release and embrace:
- “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” (Romans 7:6 ESV)
- “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)
And you may need to grieve. . . grieve a loss of routine, grieve something you thought you were working toward, grieve a part of your life that’s ending. There’s time for that: “. . . a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” (Ecclesiastes 3:4 ESV).
So, join me in asking these questions:
In what ways is my timing off?
Am I doing something routinely that I should change or not even do anymore?
How do I make changes in wisdom and faith?
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