Timing Is Everything

You’d think with the early deep freeze we had here in Indianapolis last week, plant life would know what time it is. Despite those bitter days, this week’s sunny weather, with temperatures in the mid-50’s, several hyacinths have begun poking through the grounds of this church’s courtyard garden. I’m frantic. It’s the wrong time. What will become of these early risers come Spring? If only there was some way to guard them from the error of their ways. They’re peeking too soon and peaking too soon!

The coming of Christmas can create timing issues for God’s human creatures, too. Many of us are very rushed. We’ve got parties to attend, “mandatory” gift exchanges (talk about a phrase full of paradox), cards to mail, work projects to complete before a holiday hiatus, safaris to make sale purchases during too late and too early hours of the day / night, as well as keeping some semblance of Christmas’ true spirit stoked within. Like those early rising hyacinths we run the risk of peeking and peaking too early.

The mid-point of an already shortened Advent season calls us to rejoice. In his Letter to the Philippians Paul puts it this way: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (4:4-7). Last time I heard a preacher address this issue, the punch-line was, “Well, I’m not always very delighted to be here.”

There’s the rub. Much of our inability to experience rejoicing comes from our desire to be somewhere else. Have you ever stood in a small group at a party and found yourself wondering how you could extricate from here and become embedded over there? Are you already planning an early exit from one entrapped holiday family gathering, only to find your mind projecting yourself ensnared in the grips of another one?

Try taking a cure from Paul. Sure, I know, saints are supposed to talk that way, and order their followers around in just that way. So what? Well, Paul wrote those verses from his prison cell – no doubt a place in which he, too, was not delighted to be. Besides that – and I haven’t taken time to check out the Greek – my guess, whether or not Paul is writing in the imperative (commanding voice) he’s feeling what he’s saying in the indicative (simply declaring) voice. “I’m rejoicing – not in where I am – but in Who I am with while I’m here, and wherever I am for that matter. You can too!”

The light that shines in Advents darkness isn’t meant to lead us to peak too soon, but it is there for us to peek all the time. What we get to see in remembering and experiencing again God’s gift to us at Christmas is this. From then / now on, our God is Emmanuel, God-With-Us.

God’s coming changes God’s timing and our timing, forevermore. Forever, the time to rejoice is now. Forever all ground is holy ground. There’s no holier ground over there. There’s no more sacred space than right here, right now. The key to rejoicing, holy gladness, is in the present moment, made wholly new, because we share it with Emmanuel.

Forever, even in places where we’re not delighted and with people who disappoint we can rejoice that the traps and snares cannot, do not, will not define us. Paul, in these verses, does not encourage us to be delighted by places, enthralled with persons or to ignore sadness and suffering.

He simply says that when we are present in gladness with Emmanuel, Jesus guards our heart and our mind. We can, and should, make our distresses and dis-eases known to this Jesus, thankful that the timing is always right to speak without worry to the one who can gift us with peace, the Prince of Peace.

Advent is an especially right time to spend some time wondering through these things. You might use the gift of time you’re given in long check-out lines, extended turn lanes and conversation places to breathe through those moments crowds keep you from breezing through.

You may not always understand, but gentle Emmanuel will lead you to peak at just the right time. That will, likely, lead to some heavenly delight.