All The Time In The World...

So this morning as I was riding into the office, I heard a quick snippet about the “leap second,” scheduled for this evening.  Apparently tonight, just before 8 pm, we will have a minute, made up of 61 seconds in order to accommodate the slowing of the Earth’s rotation.  This phenomenon struck me because I had never heard of the “leap second.” As I began to float off into my own thoughts about what I just heard, I began to recall instances in my life where an additional second in all of the minutes that have made up my life, would have been life-changing.

When you think about it, one second before blurting out something hurtful, would change so much in the hearts of loved ones.  One additional second of reaction time before a car accident would eliminate terrible collisions and damage.  One more blink of an eye in a minute before having to part with a loved one would be amazing.  One more second of a much needed embrace, certainly would make the difference, and one additional second before having to hit the alarm button in the morning would delight both adults and school children alike. 

I was thinking about all of the things you could do, say, eliminate, add, improve, demolish, or create, with just an additional second in one minute of a day.  The more I thought about this additional time, I finally decided that this “leap second” is simply an extension of what we already have… time.

I am saying all of this to say one simple thing.  Many have begun to diminish God’s providence, by unilaterally giving credit to the universe, saying that “the universe has conspired” to provide them with their destined end.  I submit to you that way back during the creation of man, God (who not only governs but created the universe) gave man dominion over the earth and everything in it, including time.  With this thought in mind, I urge whoever may be reading this to take one of your precious seconds to thank God that He has given each of us all of the time we need to get in alignment with His wonderful plan and purpose for our lives.  We have all the time we need to BE GREAT!!!

Let’s be intentional about using some of these precious seconds, be it the sixtieth or sixty-first, to glorify God with our lives!  

No Further Delay!

This morning I was heading to work and discovered that I had locked my keys in the car.  As I stared through the driver's side window, I saw that my extra set of keys were lying on the passenger seat of my vehicle, further complicating the morning.  With both sets of keys locked firmly inside the vehicle, I began to quickly scan through all of my options and lamented over the minutes lost while problem solving.  It was at the height of my brainstorming, that I noticed that the driver's side door was not completely closed.  I grabbed a few random items handy in the garage in an attempt to physically pry open the door; all to no avail.  

I knew that I could make a quick call to my insurance company and ask them to send a technician out to my home to open the door at no cost to me, but this option would place me too far behind schedule for today.  Just as soon as I resigned myself to exercise what appeared to be my last and only remaining option, the Lord reminded me that I had a few wire hangers in my laundry room and prompted me to try just one more time to unlock the door myself.   

Having retrieved one wire hanger obtained from the dry cleaners, I re-shaped the hook and made a few attempts (of varying shapes) to unlock the door.  Having unsuccessfully reshaped the hanger, I finally went back to utilizing the original hook of the hanger and was able to pull up, release the lock and open the door!  Eureka!  

I quickly said, "thank you Jesus," hopped in the car and was off to work with a looming deadline and a full day of tasks ahead.  Just before arrival, the Spirit of the Lord began to minister to me about exactly what had just occurred, back in my garage.  Because I am no more special that any of you, I feel compelled to share this bit of encouragement with you today.  Although I was seemingly locked out by my own fault, error and oversight, God allowed there to be just enough space for Him to utilize the unconventional thing to gain access and open the door so that I would have no further delay! 

Listen, you may have accidentally or maybe even purposely locked yourself out of some vehicles meant to carry you to your destined place. But now is a great time to begin to seek the Lord about the unconventional tools that you already have (in your possession) to access, open, and walk through any locked doors to get everything God has promised you without any further delay.  The next part of this great illumination is that although there are many logical resources and people that you can call upon that will not "charge" you anything for their help or services, the Lord does not want anyone to be able to say that they had a hand in doing this particular thing for you.  These doors will open only by the work that God Himself does through you, for you... with no further delay!