Not On My Timeline

"I'd ask you say a prayer for me, but you don't have time."

"What!?!?!" was the thought in my head as I heard that sentence.  I was at the gas station this morning, talking briefly with someone I hadn't seen for a while.  I noticed him walking past as I was going in to pay for my gas and so I stopped to talk.  We talked a bit and he asked me for some money, "Just a dollar."  I declined, and so he decided it was time to continue his journey, his parting words noted above.

Curiously, he reached that conclusion without asking about my timeline today, which included 20-30 minutes of margin for a trip I was making out-of-town.  I've also prayed with him a number of times over the years, and so he knows I'm not long-winded when it comes to lifting him to the Lord.  Mostly, I think, it's about him having control of the timeline.    

I first met this person in the fall when we moved to Dulce, so our relationship goes back about four years.  Over that time we talk whenever I happen to run into him, or when he stops by the parsonage.  I've given him rides, made him coffee, and Robin and I have both made him sandwiches.  We've shared a fair amount of conversation on some of those occasions, and I've prayed with him most of those times.

And there have been times when he has refused to talk with me, because of something that I asked of, or said to, him.  That is in large part because as I've gotten to know him and some of the things of his life I have at times brought those things into the conversation.  Sometimes that doesn’t bother him at all, but when it does he usually ignores me for a while.

I would gladly pray with this person whenever I see him, even if I truly am pressed for time.  And the truth is that he is someone I pray for almost every day, which included this morning, when I had no idea that our paths would cross for the first time in several months.

I don't know if he has an agenda and timeline when our paths cross.  I know that I do.  But my agenda and timeline are driven by the One I often refer to as Lord and Savior, Jesus, the One who led myself and my family to Dulce as the place to serve Him.

So I take time for this man, and many of the other people who I have crossed paths with in Dulce when the opportunity arises.  I listen, talk, occasionally counsel, and quite often pray, trusting that ultimately it will be on God's timeline when those prayers are answered.  

Not on my timeline, but on the One whose timing is always perfect.