day 938: Before We Know It (redux)

"For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?..."

If there is one place where time moves quickly, it is in business. Days turn to weeks, months and a year before we know it. The planning that we are doing for the following quarter is already in play before the planning is even done. The steady beating drum that is the cadence of setting, meeting, and measuring results can move by so quickly that it can feel like we are tumbling head first out of control. What comes with experience is the ability to manage how time passes. What? Time can’t be slowed or sped up. That is true, but how a business or a person addresses time can manage how time passes. Steve Young, the Hall of Fame NFL Quarterback, once said that on his first snap that he took in the NFL that the linebackers and defensive line came at him so fast that all he could do was throw the ball away as fast he could. Some fifteen years later on his last snap, when the players were bigger and faster than all those earlier years but in that game, he felt that he had all the time in the world to do whatever he wanted to do with the ball and that the defense were now coming in slow motion. Nothing has changed except for his perspective, maturity and wisdom from his ability to see the game unfold in front of him. Business is the same way. As we learn the patterns of the business, the industry and competitors, then we can begin to manage how fast it seems time passes. If it feels like things are moving too fast or feel out of control, then it’s time to be sure that those who have the best experience and perspective are called in to help.

A great part of our belief is that God is always doing something new in us and for us and it’s always coming, whether we can see it or not. Sometimes it will feel fast, other times it can feel slow, but like the art of slow-cooking, God is always working in and on us. There is no waiting. There is only allowing for Him to work. Are we looking for something new and expecting it to come soon? It may well be that we don’t have enough perspective to be able to see how time and change is unfolding. It took Steve Young many years to gain enough experience and knowledge to slow down the game. In those years, he surely practiced, watched films, studied other teams, took in coaching, etc. The same can be said for us. We need to study God’s Word. We need to talk and listen to God in prayer. We need to learn from others in fellowship. The closer we move towards God the more we can answer the question, “Do you not see it?”…with, “Yes, I can see it”.

Reference: Isaiah 43:19 (New Living Testament)

day 103: Why Me...Why Now?

I often get asked to help people understand why they are in the job they are in and more urgently, asked to help them get out of their current job. It is usually a hard conversation to have but I have to remind others that timing is everything and timing is not in their hands. When we try and force our own timing we can end up in a situation where we end up making suboptimal decisions which can be hard to reconcile in the future. One bad job change ends up with two problems; getting yourself out of the bad job and then finding another one without making another mistake. Whenever I am in these conversations I remind myself and others that God has a reason that we are all where we are at any given point in time. I am comforted by one of my favorite verses for navigating the uncertainty of our work and our work positions. That verse is found in Esther 4:14: "What's more, who can say but that you have been elevated to the palace for just such a time as this?" Queen Esther was being tested and asked to do something that she did not want to do, but her aide Mordecai gave her this challenge and it is a good one for each of us to receive when we wonder why we are doing what we are doing. I like to take the verse and insert my own name: "What's more, (insert your name here), who can say but that (I) you have been elevated to the palace for just such a time as this?" Asking ourselves this question and remembering that God is all-knowing and has a plan for each of us, should take out the question of timing. Today may be the day that you have been put exactly where you are supposed to be for a task and a moment that you have no understanding about...yet. Hang on to and use this promise and challenge the next time you are in a time of wondering. You just may find that you are to persevere and push through just a little longer or be a little more patient so that things can work out the way they are supposed to, on God's timeline, not yours.

Reference: Esther 4:14 (New Living Testament)