Timing Is Everything

This year (all one and a half months of it, ha) seems to be extremely intent on beating me over the head with a single lesson: Timing is everything.

I'm not talking about my own timing, of course.

One by one, my plans this year have been getting handed to me. Not exactly in an I'm-getting-life-handed-to-me way, but more in a "nice try, but your plans just got totally dominated (but you still get to benefit!)" way.

I think it's because I tend to get stuck so easily on when and how certain things should happen (are you noticing a recurring theme here?). I'm good at saying that I'm trying to trust God's plan and timing, but then I'm all shock and awe every time something happens that goes against the "plan" I envisioned. I'm blown away that it didn't happen in my time and in my way. Even though (surprise, surprise!) the different plan or path always seems to work out--often better than mine would!

Anyway, from the second that ball dropped on 2015, this year has been packed with all sorts of things we didn't plan, let alone anticipate. There are crazy life changes that caught us completely off guard, and the planning (or lack thereof) right now has me completely preoccupied and spinning my wheels. At the same time, things are getting busier than I could have imagined with work projects and deadlines that hang over my head, leaving no time for preoccupation or to dwell on changes that are happening too quickly. Instead, I'm being forced to just move forward and DO. And all of this is punctuated by those little victories that gloriously keep happening (and getting louder!)--victories that I imagined playing out so differently, maybe more gradually, maybe when I had more time to react--but all the same, they are happening now, bubbling over like a volcano that has just been waiting to erupt, rocking our world in the best way possible. 

And so, I sit here in the preschool parking lot (with fifteen precious minutes to myself before my car is filled with the sound of boys, thinking of how my son would approve of that volcano analogy and reflecting on all these other insanities currently filling our world), and I just have to shake my head and laugh. Laugh at myself, and at all the chaos that has happened--and is still forming a perfect plan--despite my assumption that there wasn't enough time for one, let alone five of these developments to happen in a single week. And I laugh at my stubborn control freakish-ness and what a slow, repetitive learner I am. I should know by now that His timing is everything. But for as many times as I keep trying to grab the reigns and take control and give God the angry/confused look when I still seem to veer off course and my plans get all bungled up, He's there to keep showing up and showing me that He's got it. That His plans and His timing were right all along. [Even if it's not what I would have chosen or thought up on my own]. Good thing He is the King of patience.

Lent begins next week. So as this next season approaches, and as our lives and our plans continue to get a complete overhaul from the Divine Planner who long ago drew up the universal and eternal timeline that accounts for every star and grain of sand, I'm focusing on the lesson I can't seem to escape. His timing is everything. Even when I think I can't handle it and I'm not ready. Even when I'm still giving Him that bewildered look. Even when I my timing sounds better. He shows me that He considers every detail I'm liable to forget, and He reminds me that sometimes that details I get so hung up on are just small beans.  His plans are so much bigger, so much more intricate, than my own, and as many times as it takes, He's there again and again to get me out of my own way and let the magic happen.

So this Lent, I'm  praying that I can concede to more allowance in my "plans" for things to go according to His plan--crazy timing and all. Feel free to help keep me on course!


[We're also doing a financial fast, but that's another story for another day.]
What are you up to this Lent? Have you been getting hit with any lessons you can't ignore?

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P.S. I'm also linking up today with Blessed Is She, because the long-awaited blog is up and running (yay!), and the team just kicked off the first link-up on preparing for Lent. Perfect timing, eh? Join us if you'd like!