[God's] Timing [is everything]

Sometimes I get frustrated at my own youth. Because sometimes being young means being right at the wrong times, and therefore means being right in the wrong way.

Let me illustrate. You know that old phrase: "You can take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink"? Fifty bucks says that someone over the age of 50 coined that phrase. No way was it coined by a 26-year-old male... I'd bet on that.

Now, the 26-year-old male might understand what that phrase means in principle, and perhaps would even be able to use it correctly in a sentence or apply it appropriately to a situation. BUT, that truth has yet to be internalized and burned on his heart and mind... burned by years of experience and the wisdom that comes from it.

That phrase about a thirsty horse has embedded within it a very scriptural, spiritual truth: only God knows how and when to give those thirsty for him a drink. It could be quite obvious to anyone that what they are thirsty for is God or something of God, but until God has them where they need to be such that they are willing and able to take long, satisfying draughts of his presence and mission... well, like the phrase says, you just can't make them drink.

Now, this truth and the reality of it should inform the 26-year-old male about how he should operate. It really should. But, truth be told, sometimes the young man fails to make adjustments to the way he is operating, mainly because he is young and therefore stupid and willful at times. He learns, but only after his God treats him in the same manner as He is treating other thirsty people. As the young man sees God's impeccable timing in the lives of those he is ministering to and with, he begins to realize that what he himself is thirsty for is humility. And God in His faithfulness (and in His humor, I surmise), has uniquely positioned the young man to take some difficult but satisfying gulps.

The body of Christ is unique. One part is able to tend to another only with humility and gentleness, attuned to the heart and mission of the Great Physician, because this is the only way that the Physician brings about true and lasting healing. Just like a doctor must be gentle and sure with the scalpel, having on his or her mind the weightiness and delicacy of the task before him or her, so also must we as members of one body have on our minds the weightiness and delicacy of the task before us: tending to the needs of one another. And loving one another, while it is expressed through a variety of means and for a variety of purposes, is always properly prescribed with an appropriate amount of gentleness and humility, patience and longsuffering. If it is not, then it is not the love of Christ.