All In Due Time

My tasks include a couple that involve developing my spiritual side, namely finding a new home church and reading the Bible start to finish for the first time. Both are works in progress.

I've visited a church near me a couple times and I've really enjoyed it so far. It's non-denominational, which is what I've grown to want in a church over the last several years. I grew up Catholic, and my family converted to Baptist when I was 12. From that point to when I had moved to Maryland, my family (myself included) had steadily attended Baptist churches. Gradually I found non-denominational churches to be more appealing, and I found myself learning a lot more from other churches. I stopped going to church a couple years ago - not because of any loss of faith, but simply stopped going.

I've also been reading my Bible regularly for the first time in a very, very long time. I'm still in Exodus, but there are plenty of stories that I am reading all over again as if they're being read for the first time. My Bible also has footnotes to add historical context to all the passages. It's been enlightening, to say the least.

All that brings me to this morning. I didn't go to church this morning (talk about irony, given the theme here), but I did watch Joel Osteen instead. Osteen is a minister based in Houston, and I've seen his sermons once or twice before. Today's message was centered around when it's "your time." There's a time to be free of debt. There's a time to find the right job. There's a time to find the right relationship. There's a time to be healthy in body, mind, and soul.

Osteen's message was just the kind of message I needed to hear. How fitting is it that I needed to hear a message about timing, and I happened to flip channels and noticed his program was just starting. The key is to understand that the right time is when God has already deemed it, and it will not come one second late.

Human beings are naturally impatient. We want what we want yesterday, and it's easy to hope for or ask for things simply because we want them without taking into account the impact or consequences. I've certainly been guilty of wanting things done on my time table instead of what God has in store for me in the past. I'm sure I'll need to be reminded of that fact throughout my life. Today, though, I know I'm one day closer to understanding the plan God has for me. I may not fully know what the plan is, but I'm okay with that.