I received a call from my newly licensed daughter this week. “Dad. Someone just hit me.” I’m not one who is easily panicked, but I have to admit that my heart jumped just a little. My grandchildren were in the car with her. After determining that everyone was alright physically, I asked her what happened. “I was sitting at a stop light waiting to make a left turn. The guy at the light coming straight through just sat there when the light turned green, then he waved me through to make my turn. After I had turned, he came on through the intersection and hit me.” It sounded a little suspicious to me until her story was corroborated by another driver.
The old adage is true – “Timing is everything.” Another 3 seconds or so and the other driver would not have hit her. Had he moved 20 seconds earlier, she would not have turned through the intersection until he was past. The same is true for us, even when we’re following God’s instructions. I’ve had friends who were told by traveling prophets that they would be great ____________ (fill in the blank) who immediately started rearranging things in their world so that God could use them in that area. It seems that when we hear from God, we get impatient sometimes to accomplish what we know we are to accomplish.
I speak from experience. I am not immune to this phenomenon. From the time I was very young, I sensed that God wanted me to do something. I remember praying in our small church week after week to determine what God wanted me to do. I remember discovering that God had called me to be a pastor, but after seeing what my father went through as a pastor for 30 years at that time, I wasn’t about to be the pastor of a church. In 1990, while my wife was out of the country on a missions trip, I began praying in earnest about God’s calling for my life. It was then that I distinctly heard God telling me that I was to go into music ministry. I can’t say that anyone else in the room would have heard His voice or not, but I did. So I did what any other successful business person would have done. I said “No way!” I was a salesman in the DC area at the time. Behind government, the printing industry is the second largest industry in the DC area. I sold printing. In fact, my sales made up 80% of the business in the company that I worked for and I had just landed a national account that would bring millions of dollars to the company and add many thousands of dollars to my salary. Why would I quit a successful career? I was volunteering in church at the time and was happy to continue to volunteer, but to go into full-time ministry? Not a chance. 
So, like many great men before me, I asked for a sign. I said “OK God. If this IS God, you’re going to have to hit me over the head with a sign, because I’m not just quitting my job and going into ministry.” That was Wednesday. On Friday, I was called into my manager’s office and told that I was being laid off. Turns out, my national deal was enough to keep the company running three shifts for the next several years. The only downside for them was paying me the commission on the sale. So I was let go. OK God. You have my attention.
I approached the pastor of the church I was volunteering, where, it turns out, they were in need of a music minister. I explained my call from God, my circumstances and told him that I would like to be considered for the position. I was not hired. What was I supposed to do? God Himself had spoken to me and no one would listen. I would just do what He called me to do. So, like Abraham, who didn’t see the promise of an heir immediately, I took matters into my own hands and found a position at another church. Now, 20+ years later, I can see how moving my family over the next several years, placing a strain on my marriage and my family was probably not what God had in mind for me.
Jesus had the same issue, yet He handled it much differently than I did. In John 7 we find a story about Jesus and God’s timing. The feast of Tabernacles was approaching. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, this was the most popular of the three major Jewish feasts. Jesus’ brothers were going to Jerusalem for the festivities and wanted Jesus to come along. Of course, their motive was questionable. They said ” ‘Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.’ For even his own brothers did not believe in him.” ~ John 7:3-5
The response by Jesus tells us a lot about Him. He said “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do.” God’s timing was not right for Jesus to go to Jerusalem publicly. Why not? We may never know. Perhaps it was because the Jewish leaders were waiting for him. In verse 11 we read that they were watching for Him and asking about Him at the festival. But it’s Jesus’ dig at His brothers that catches my attention. “For you, any time will do.” He was saying “You don’t know the plan of God. You don’t know God’s perfect timing. You are all about you. For you, any time will do.” But by contrast, He said “You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival because my time has not yet fully come.” Fully come. God’s timing was just as important to Jesus as His mission. Jesus knew what His mission on earth was. Could He have accomplished it by going to Jerusalem with His brothers? Maybe, but definitely not how God intended Him to. It would not have gone the way that God intended. It may have taken longer. It may not have impressed something in just one of the disciples that needed to be impressed.
In verse 10 we read that Jesus did go to the festival, secretly, after His brothers had left. About halfway through the 7-day feast, Jesus started teaching publicly. God’s time for Him to do so had come. Jesus just had to wait for three days. What difference did three days make? Apparently it made a difference because Jesus would not go earlier because of God’s timetable. One thing is for sure, when Jesus finally did go to the festival, He made an impression. Throughout the rest of this chapter and into chapter 8 we read about the stir that Jesus caused by His appearance at the Feast of Tabernacles. He got things stirred up. Timing was everything.
Are you waiting for something? Has God placed something in you that you need to accomplish? I believe that we all are placed here to accomplish something. But we have to remember that timing is everything. For me, additional training and experience were necessary for me to accomplish what God intended. I thought I was ready. You may have heard it said that “Those whom God calls He equips.” That may be true, but He doesn’t always equip them overnight. For Jesus, it was a matter of about 3 days. Equipping sometimes takes years. Jesus knew that He had a mission to accomplish, yet He worked to accomplish it in God’s timing, not His own. May you fulfill your calling to build God’s kingdom in His timing. Don’t be one of those to whom Jesus would say “For you any time will do.” Seek God’s timing. If you sense God telling you to move on something now, move now – even if you don’t see everything in place. If you sense God telling you to do something, but don’t sense an urgency, wait for His perfect time to accomplish your mission. Remember, movement does not equal accomplishment. Don’t get frustrated or impatient, because God’s timing is always perfect, and He’s seldom early by our standards. In fact, I’ve found that He is usually last-minute by my standards. But not by His. His timing is perfect and you will not accomplish His perfect will unless your mission is not only accomplished, but accomplished by His timetable.