Timing is Everything

For several decades, George Burns and Gracie Allen entertained audiences with their unique humor. With George, as the straight man and Gracie as the dizzy but lovable wife, they moved from vaudeville to radio to television - and into the hearts of millions.

For this husband and wife comedy team, everything depended on depending on each other. His questions set up her rapid-fire explanations. Her concluding one-liners needed his deadpan responses. The ability to reply at the right time - and in the appropriate manner - made their comedy sparkle.

There's a mystique about timing. When it's right, it's fabulous. When it's wrong, it's a disaster. It takes listening to the inner self to make it work. Not just in comedy, but in all of life.

We speak of the right timing to get married, to start a business, to have children, to change jobs, to risk a new venture, even to take a vacation. Some of us sense this timing intuitively; others plan it. Either way, we know that timing makes a difference. It affects our outlook and success, so sometimes we stop and say, "It's not the right time yet." And even if they don't understand, people make room for a delayed decision.

Oddly, we forge to give the same room to God.

Maybe it's because we know He's capable of doing anything, but we get impatient waiting for God. We forget that He waits for the right timing, too. In fact, He knows the perfect timing, even though it looks illogical to us. His ways are not our ways, and neither are His timetables our timetables.

But when we wait for his timing, nothing can compare with its abiding impact on us.

Judith Couchman                                
Passage: Ecclesiastes 3:1-14             Verse: Ecclesiastes 3:1