Take Your Time

(You may be asking the good question – oi Chris, where’s the teacher training class blog entry for today, didn’t you go to teacher training today? The answer to that is no, I did not go to teacher training today. This afternoon I was in Leicester for the YMCA Regional Thanksgiving Celebration which finished after 9pm. Did a workshop on the Christian Spiritual Development Toolkit that’s been published for the region. Interesting document, good workshop with some dear colleagues and new friends – all very good. Also spent some time with my good friend, Ray. So no teaching today, but the lesson learnt is that not teacher training need take place in a college!)

I don’t talk to my dad that often. Not because I don’t like talking to him, or I don’t love him. Ours is just a relationship that’s not been about constant phone calls and that kind of stuff. I know he loves hearing from me when he does and finding out how things are with me, but he’s not one to make a big fuss. It’s one of the endearing features about my dad that he doesn’t usually make a fuss of these kind of things.

Another really endearing quality of my dad is his ability to just focus on doing what he can get done in the time that he can do it. There’s no rushing him, there’s not pressuring him. If he can do it, he will do it. If he cannot do it he will say he is unable and not get bogged down by it. If he’s going to do it he’ll take his time and get the job done properly.

I have yet to learn from my dad in all these areas of life. I still find myself being somewhat manic in addressing some matters and in the mania not really giving my best to a task and ending up disappointed in the outcome. There is still a significant part of me that has learnt to take my time with things. Now for me that means not being that rapid in completing things. I can read fairly quickly, but even there I’m not reading especially speedily for the sake of it. I just tend to take on large tracts of words in a given sitting. Other than that I’m a bit of a stroller. Yeah I type a bit, but even then if you look at me the fingers are doing the work, but the rest of me is going at a pedestrian pace.

I find it more enjoyable to take my time to get something done. That way I can savour it a bit more, check it out in terms of its context both what has gone before and what might be ahead as a result. It’s relaxing and soothing to be under great pressure to produce, but know that as you reach the end the goods will emerge.

I say all this to celebrate the legacy of my father, who is still with us but has left his older son with a great sense of timing. I sometimes believe that in as much as God hears the cries of His people and sees their plight, there is something about Him in which He calls His children to step out of the immediacy and see things from his perspective. See how in actual fact the end is not the end, but the beginning, and how the beginning is not the beginning but the end of another chapter. Then in viewing things from His perspective and trusting Him with all the details it is no surprise that there is a great peace and serenity even in the midst of crisis.

The sentiments of the song below reaffirm that, in as much as the rush is on according to some, and there is an element in which we have to be mindful of the time, in the Kingdom economy based on eternity we really do have all the time in the world for love.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd