May 23, 2008
Time Sensitive
I’m finding myself on committees that sometimes deal with time sensitive material. It’s not that we can’t ever tell others the information we’ve been given; we just have to wait for the appropriate time to share the information. This, ‘think before you speak’ stuff is really hard work. I literally have to stop and ask myself where I heard what I heard and when can I talk about it. I can so sympathize with the man healed of leprosy. Jesus warned him, “See that you don’t tell this to anyone… Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places...” (Mark 1:44a, 45a NIV)
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Gail;
-----Many problems - maybe most problems - are caused by speaking before thinking. Life is complex with details, and so is each of its events. And many details of each event are significant, kind of like the links on a website. If you click on one of the details, it takes you to a different event that might bare a significant relationship to the first. And so it is also with the ideas, plans, and goals that we all deal with. Details, details, details everywhere! Which are significant? Which are ignorant? About which should we care? Are some true? Or are they all twisted? There’s a way through. Take your time, and explore. Or miss it!
-----In fact, we find most events misunderstood and most ideas at least somewhat twisted after a bit of further examination. Usually we proceed with the ideas anyway, “Shoot,” we think, “it is the only idea I have.” Maybe the twist is not a fatal flaw, not such that it renders the idea useless. But it does bend it a bit out of square. Placing the idea on the stack of all the other flawed ideas will produce a structure that may stand, but could be wobbly, maybe even easily collapsible. And so our lives proceed, or the government proceeds, or the church. This is basically how all of man’s doing become rickety.
-----The story about the yackity man with leprosy looks at the other reason for taking our time. We not only must be sure about our information and ideas, but for even the stout and square ones to have the proper effect in the real world of everyone else, their time and place of interjection must be on target. Before I married my sweetie heart, I used to make bread (I bought Chari a bread machine - hah). Just throw some flour, a little milk, a bit of salt, some yeast, a little sugar, and a sprinkle of pepper into a bowl, stir it up, and toss it in the oven! Right?! Yuk!! I don’t think so! I always got a kick out of the idea of setting the yeast to the side in a bowl of warm, sugared, scalded milk to start a good colony of thriving little yeasties. Gee! That makes sense! While they are doing all the tiny things yeast do (that we really don’t want to know) I can be toying with the flour, salt, and other pinches of this and that to explore different flavors. Only when the time is right do we pour the little yeast society into the rest of the mix. There will be more waiting soon to come. And I think you’ve gotten my drift. Jesus did not want to become the pop star at that point of His ministry. Timing is everything. Even in our lives.
Love,
Steve Corey
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