Master of Timing

“God is a master of timing” ~ Chris Tiegreen

We’re on a cruise to celebrate our tenth anniversary.

Our first year was full of travel: Whistler, Canada. Victoria.Disney World with family. Aunt and uncle, and cousins in Nebraska.  Washington DC, taking a train north to Niagara Falls, on to Toronto, Canada, to take the trans-Canadian excursion by rail to Vancouver, BC. Finally that first year, we headed to Florida and took our first Caribbean cruise through the Panama Canal. As we slid past the canal locks—at exactly the same time we’d said our vows one year earlier, we toasted our first year.

I get dizzy when I think of all the travel we did that first year. Now ten years later, we have considerably slowed down our travels and are still as blessed as ever.

In our second year of marriage, we began to facilitate GriefShare. We wanted to give back what had benefitted us. Now we planned our  travels around the 13 week GriefShare classes we did twice a year.

Looking back, at first I couldn’t imagine being married to someone else, but then, after about twenty months of being a widow,  I realized I missed being married and the companionship I’d enjoyed with Bill, my first husband. Our marriage was far from perfect, but after counseling, communication classes, and prayer, we found a way to make our marriage work and the last twenty years were good—our “second chance”.

When I married Blair two years later,  I was ready to build a new life and make history with my new husband. Another “second chance.” It was a short and wonderful  seventeen months. One night before going to bed, Blair complained of an headache and 20 hours later, he died from a brain aneurysm. I didn’t understand why and honestly felt cheated. But I trusted the master of timing.

Two years passed. I found myself engaged to the wrong man. When he broke off our engagement five weeks before the wedding. I wondered if I would be single for the rest of my life. I learned to be content with Jesus by my side and not another man.

Sixteen months later, I met Jim. From the very beginning it was right. We listened to each other’s stories. We talked about everything. 

We found a house that was ours together. Jim joined the church I’d attended for 30+ years. After a time, we began facilitating GriefShare classes as a team.  Because we knew each other’s stories, hurts, and grief, we were used by God as we guided those who were grieving. We led them along the road of grief from mourning to joy.

About three years ago, we became members of another church and instead of Shirley’s church, it was our church. We led GriefShare, Jim was asked to be an elder,  I became a deaconess. We continued to lead GriefShare twice a year.

We love our quiet times together where we read our Bibles. This year, we’re going through an advent book called The Wonder of Advent Devotional by Chris Tiegreen. It was here I read that statement: “God is a master of timing.”

It is my prayer that you find what I discovered through dependence on Jesus Christ and not what’s happening around us.

This morning I read in Jude 20 (Jude was the half brother of Jesus), “build yourself up on your most holy faith.” That trust in Christ is available to everyone. Leaving our fears and doubts with the “master of timing” is the best possible thing you can do.

”Lord, thank you I can depend on you to do what’s best in my life. I pray those who read this will discover the beauty of believing in You, the master of timing.”