Timing

There was no question that our flight was Monday morning.  Just to be sure, I decided to recheck the e-ticket.  As I glanced, the time of 11.15 stood out.  I immediately knew that this was our departure time.  As we planned and then followed our schedule for an 11.15 departure, it never crossed my mind to question our priorities and actions.  For the record, the number 11.15 is on the ticket.  The problem with this time is that it marks our arrival at our first destination, not our departure.  We missed our flight, totally.  It was not even close.
Life unfolds in ways that do not quite fit our imagination.  Often, one can find the core elements but the sequence, content, and even experience is very different than our expectations.  What we think is a beginning may be the end of a chapter.  A new character may simply be a friend that is going through a change in his or her journey.  Whatever we think the milestones should be it is far more likely that they will be different.
As we got on a later flight, I found myself letting go of my expectations.  Everything was going to be new, and it is.  Sabah (NE Borneo) is very different from anywhere I have been before.  As I sit on a bench in a jungle lodge, I realize that whatever I thought it would be like, it is different. 
I find myself studying Saul's model.  When his life suddenly changed, he “spent a few days getting acquainted with the Damascus disciples, but then went right to work, wasting no time, preaching in the meeting places that this Jesus was the Son of God.”  (Acts 9.19, 20) 
You and I would do well to adopt this approach.  Stop, recharge, reconnect with friends, and then intentionally walk the path God calls us to.  Each has a path that is uniquely shaped for him or her.  Regardless of the urgency, pressures, or imaginations, we are called to be fully and completely in the moment with the Spirit and our gifts.