Timing; it's our best friend and our worst enemy. We have such a desire to know timing inside and out, but we'll never truly understand it no matter how hard we try. All we can do is try to trust it.
When the timing is right, we feel lucky, and when the timing is wrong, we feel confused. I will be the first to admit that more often than not I am confused because I let the instances that had "bad timing" overshadow the good ones.
For a good moment is fleeting. It has an open and close that you can look back on with pure joy and instantly smile. The bad timing? Well, that has a start too but is often left open-ended.
Or so It seems that way, doesn't it? It's like someone else took the pen to your story, inserted their own dramatic plot twist and ended the chapter with a cliffhanger. What seems to be left open, really is closed, just not the way you had imagined. Yes, it's frustrating as all hell, but it doesn't take away from what was. It's still part of you and your journey even though it's over.
The truth is timing is a mystery, and you cannot control what is unknown. While timing is a mystery, it also contains a hint of magic every now and then.
The only way to handle timing is to trust it. I'm not one to go to church every week, and I struggle with my idea of faith. However, one of my favorite biblical passages that gets me through is this:
"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" -Jeremiah 29:11
I won't lie, sometimes it is difficult to trust these words. However, when I'm struggling, I read this quote and find hope that while one door closed, another one will open. And when I eventually find that door, I find truth in those words I sometimes struggle to believe.
Recent events in my life solidified my belief in that statement, though...
A few weeks ago, I was sitting at lunch with my friends. I received a phone call about a job interview. They realized I was still in college though and wanted me to reapply after graduation. I remember sitting there so dejected. I wanted so badly to know what I was doing after graduation. I understood that most places in the advertising industry wanted people immediately, not a few months down the road, but none the less I felt defeated. Everywhere I looked friends and peers were figuring their lives out.
A couple hours later, I checked my university mailbox. I received a letter to myself from a retreat I went on in February. This letter contained a reminder to live out the lessons I learned on that retreat. One of those lessons was trusting in God's timing even when you can't see what the plan is.
Flash forward a couple more hours, and I received another phone call. This time, it was a job offer from one of the several companies I had applied to. I was absolutely ecstatic. I wanted this job more than anything, and now I had it when a few hours later I thought I was going to have to deal with rejection after rejection until after graduation.
What's even weirder? I applied for this job the same exact day I left for the retreat where I wrote the letter to myself I received only a few hours before the call.
If that's not a sign about trusting in the timing of life, then I don't know what is. I'm thankful I was patient as frustrating as it was. The rejections in between applying for the job and receiving a job offer were disappointing. Several doors closed that I wish didn't, but then my ideal door opened and all the funny ways timing worked throughout the past few months made sense.
After realizing how timing had worked in this specific situation, I immediately thought about those words in Jeremiah 29:11.
I had been preaching those words and repeating them for more than a year, but it wasn't until now that I truly believed them. I looked back at other experiences in the past year and understood them more too.
I'm just an average twenty-something girl living her story. I still have questions, and I know it will be difficult to remain firm in this belief at times. I don't have all the answers; none of us do.
Maybe my story gives you hope and encourages you to trust in timing too. Maybe it doesn't and that's perfectly fine. Your life will help you come to your own conclusions and realizations just like the late Prince said:
"Everyone has their own experience. That's why we are here, to go through our experience, to learn, to go down those paths and eventually you may have gone down so many paths and learned so much that you don't have to come back again."-Prince
Life is just a series of doors that close and open, and I'm going to start looking at these moments with more hope and positivity. Now I believe that those doors close and open for a reason even if we can't see it in the moment. How you choose to look at it is up to you.
