Timing Is Everything!

In September of last year I met with the Call Committee of Messiah Lutheran Church. It just so happened that I was in the Houston area for a conference when they wanted to talk with me. So instead of a thirty minute phone call, we had a ninety minute conversation about the Messiah congregation and its ministry as well as my pastoral experience and ideas for outreach. The next day the congregation president told me that they would recommend me to the congregation to serve as their pastor. I sometimes wonder if they would have made that choice if it was only a thirty minute phone call.

Timing is everything.

In January 2016 I was installed as pastor at Messiah, but my wife still needed to remain in Indiana through the end of the school year. We had a house to sell, a daughter still at Indiana University, and no place to move to in Houston. The transition would take about five months of us living apart with only a couple of visits during that time.

The house sold in late March and we were scheduled to sign the papers in early May. Although we had house-hunted online for almost six months and in earnest for a few weeks, nothing we saw met our family's needs. With the sale of the Indiana house looming on the horizon, time was getting short. We needed to find a Houston home.

In late April, a mere 11 days before I was scheduled to fly to Indiana for our daughter's college graduation, and seven months to the day since I met with the Messiah Call Committee, we found the house and our offer was accepted.

Timing is everything.

That's what I have been learning. Timing is everything, especially when it's Jesus' timing. In Psalm 27, David writes, "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

Jesus has been teaching me and my wife to trust Him. He has been challenging us to be strong in our faith and take heart when discouraged. He has been saying to us, "Don't worry. I've got this. I am the Lord of perfect timing."

What in your life seems to be ill-timed? What do you need to happen in a timely fashion? I encourage you to ponder the words of David: Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Timing is everything, and His timing is perfect.