If I took the time to share all of my friend Tara’s attributes, I would need more space than I’ve allowed for this blog; however, one of her many gifts that has amazed me time and time again, is her gift of Perfect Timing. Of all the friends the Lord has chosen to bless me with, I can’t recall anyone else who can arrive at just the right time—rarely early or late, Tara appears exactly at the time she planned. How she can time things so perfectly has always baffled me, even when facing an obstacle like traffic! I will typically arrive somewhere early because I do not have the precision that Tara has for being perfectly on time. It’s a gift! And you know, there is someone else who is gifted with Perfect Timing.

If you are a regular reader to this blog, you may contradict what I am about to share, but I really don’t spend a great deal of time dwelling over my Struggle With Singleness. Yes, it arises from time to time in conversations with trusted friends, or even on occasion, as a wedding invitation awaits an RSVP; however, there is a part of me that tries to trust in God’s Perfect Timing. (I promise, I do try)! And since none of us are perfect, I’ve never really held to the belief that there is a perfect person for all of us. Yet, there are moments, such as hearing a specific song played or reading a realistic love story, that my heart yearns a bit for deep companionship, and I begin to question God’s Perfect Timing for my life.

Submitting to God’s Perfect Timing is not really a when issue, like being a morning lark or night owl, as I shared in a previous post from Daniel Pink’s When, but it is a trust issue. Do I really trust what I read in Scripture such as Psalm 139? I whole-heartedly desire to answer with an emphatic “Yes!” but that is not always the case. So, in those moments when I find myself having dark doubts about my future and am desperate for a reminder about how dependable God is, I turn to stories like God’s Smuggler, where I am made aware that only our Creator could orchestrate the circumstances of Perfect Timing that Brother Andrew describes.

Without sharing too many details in case you want to read about the miracles for yourself, I’ll provide a snapshot of Brother Andrew’s amazing trust in God’s Perfect Timing. Brother Andrew is a Christian missionary “noted for his exploits in smuggling Bibles into communist countries at the height of the Cold War.” Time and time again, Brother Andrew would risk imprisonment, find himself banished from a country, but persevere to fulfill God’s mission of delivering Bibles to communist countries. Steering his Volkswagen Beetle to the security checkpoints, he would trust God’s protection, often famously praying, “Lord, in my luggage I have Scripture I want to take to your children. When you were on earth, You made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things You do not want them to see.” And He provided again and again. Security would complete a search of the car, hand Brother Andrew his passport, and allow him to cross into the country. God’s Perfect Timing manifested in border crossings year after year in a way that can only be God’s hand.

Joyce Meyer says, “Timing and trust are twins. They work side by side.” In order to be blessed by God’s Perfect Timing, we must learn to trust Him as well. “Trusting God often requires not knowing how God is going to accomplish what needs to be done and not knowing when He will do it. We always say, “God is never late,” but He is generally not early either. Why? Because He uses those opportunities to stretch our faith in Him, and we grow during times of waiting… Trust is not inherited; it is learned! We learn to trust God by going through various experiences that require trust. By seeing God‘s faithfulness over and over, we let go of trusting ourselves, and gradually we enter God‘s rest and place our trust in Him.” Sounds like Everyday Faithfulness, does it not?

In the days ahead, I will decide to trust in Tara’s precision of managing the clock and in God’s Perfect Timing for overseeing my life. If He can blind the eyes of border-crossing guards, there’s no telling how He is guiding and protecting me! We respond in awe upon hearing miracle stories like Brother Andrew’s; however, I wonder how many times God has orchestrated Perfect Timing in your life, perhaps in rather ordinary ways. Would you consider sharing one of those stories in the comments below?

References:

Andrew, B. (2015). God’s smuggler. [Kindle version]. Baker Publishing Group.

Bethany Global University. (2019, April 12). Brother Andrew: God’s smuggler for missions. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://bethanygu.edu/blog/stories/brother-andrew-gods-smuggler-for-missions/

Meyer, J. (2008). When, God, when? FaithWords.

Pink, D.H. (2018). When: The scientific secrets of perfect timing. [Kindle version]. Riverhead Books.