The 12:47 Conundrum

 

I pulled out of my Houston apartment parking spot yesterday morning at 3:45 AM, heading to Wichita for the holidays with my brothers and their families. As I put the Honda Fit in reverse, I looked at my Garmin GPS for the ETA for my destination in Kansas. It read as you see above: 12:47 PM. I wasn't foolish enough to believe that would prove prophetic...... and it didn't. I would have had to average right at 70 miles per hour over nine hours and that is simply not feasible.    

As I neared Wichita, I changed the desired destination to the tennis courts where Dave would be teaching lessons, replacing Dave and Sally's home address, but it would have been almost identical without the switch. I arrived at the Dave Hawley Tennis Complex at Wichita Collegiate School at 2:47 PM or two hours after predicted. Imagine showing up two hours late for work. I tell my students you call employees who are always late..... unemployed. Good thing it wasn't a job interview! 

Of course, I knew there was there was no way I would get to my resting spot in the time frame named by my GARMIN and truthfully, I didn't want to. I told Dave I would be there between 2-3 PM so it would have messed up several schedules to be early. As always, little things came between me and the original ETA. For example, the GARMIN can't predict red lights during the first several miles from my living quarters or lanes on the Interstate being shut down due to short term construction. Also, the device cannot forecast the weather so a heavy rain band slowed me to 40 MPH for a good while between Huntsville and Dallas. Plus, fatigue caused me to sleep at a rest stop and pull off the highway to buy coffee causing more slow downs. GARMIN can't predict sleep patterns apparently. So, I was very comfortable and satisfied to end my journey when I did. As usual, it worked out in a timely manner.

Like many of you, I don't like waiting. I want my prayers answered now. I want my players to improve today. I want my students to grasp the Biblical truths the moment they are presented. But we aren't promised a timetable. No life is perfectly smooth and it might not be good for us if it was. We are promised that God hears us and loves us. We get there, wherever there is, when it is best for us and when it falls into His will. Jesus says in John 7:6 that, , "The right time for me has not yet come. Any time is right for you." (Good News Translation) My guess is that my personal ETA for my life wishes/goals is always earlier on the calendar than our Father's. Maybe that's why we say Father Knows Best. Maybe that's why we call it Father Time.

Applicable quote of  the day: 
Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations. 
Faith Baldwin

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
E-mail me at shawley@westburychristian.org