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Timing is everything, right?

That's what the old adage says, right?  Timing is everything?

I guess it depends on what we're talking about.  Timing meant a lot to thousands of people on 9/11.  Timing means a lot to athletes.  Timing means a lot when words are spoken.

So what about the Lord's timing?  I saw a quote today that read:  His timing is rarely ours, but it's always perfect. (Amy Carroll, author)

Hmm...in my deepest places in my heart, I believe that.  But, at the surface, sometimes I question.  Yeah, I'm REALLY human! :)

The devotional I've been doing is one for writers and has been really encouraging, enlightening and interesting.  I was encouraged to write a timeline of my life events to see if I could piece together where it was the Lord is guiding my life...how He is using me in ministry.  (We are ALL ministers that love and follow Christ, by the way.)  So, let's look at my timeline for a sec:

*began working in the youth group at First Assembly in high school
*moved to the Junior High youth group shortly after high school (leadership turned over when I was around 23 and I was asked to leave...)
*worked in the after school care program at Lutheran HS and at Hallmark (still one of my favorite jobs!)
*left one Hallmark to help start a new one...almost got "let go" after I had a disagreement with the boss's son, but ended up quitting instead
*worked part time for the attorney several different times
*bought Party Works when I was 25
*9/11 hit 9 months after I bought the store and I ended up having to close the retail store in December of that year as people weren't having parties in those months following 9/11
*I continued to run the delivery and decorating service for the next 6 years out of a warehouse and eventually out of my parent's garage until having to file for bankruptcy
*worked for several greeting card companies during the time I ran the decorating/delivery service to keep some sort of money coming in
*finally started working for the attorney full time in 2006
*started working part-time as a Chaplain for Bickford Senior Living in 2009
*finally moved out when I was 31!
*moved to a new place just over a year later when my sister and her two boys needed a place to live
*helped my dad at his church he was pastoring, running the youth group and helping on the board
*during this time is when I wrote and directed my first play at the church
*church politics forced us out of that church :(
*2011 sent my sister, myself and the boys home to live with my parents and they were encountering huge health issues and they needed our help
*2012 I started selling Thirty-One
*ended up going back to First Church of the Nazarene for a time, eventually leading the children's ministry for about 1 1/2 years --- also wrote and directed several more plays here
*started going to bible studies at Heartland several years ago
*switched home churches to Heartland in January of 2016

Phew, are you tired or bored yet?  I promise I have a point. :)

I looked at this list and thought how different it looks from what I had imagined as a starry-eyed teenager in 1993 with a diploma in hand and dreams to be filled.  Problem was those dreams weren't entirely HIS dreams for me.  And, He has guided me these last 24 years, helping me find my way, my purpose, and re-directing my dreams so that they would best fit into my life.

It's easy to blame God when our dreams don't play out the way we hope.  But, we can't see what He sees.  We can't know what He knows.  But, we can trust Him to work all things for the good of His people, to those called according to His purpose. (Romans 8;28)

Some of my greatest dreams still have not come to be at almost 42 years old.  But, today I was reminded of a verse in Ephesians and smiled.  I can't know what He has planned, but His love for me and His plans are immeasurably greater than anything I could plan.

"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family[a]in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
Ephesians 3:14-21


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