I read somewhere that you can really tell someone's personality by how they handle delays. We may be sugar and spice and everything nice until someone messes with our finally tuned schedule. Suddenly sugar and spice turn into claws and fangs and things get ugly very quickly. We are called to shine the light of Jesus into the world. If we are behaving badly through our daily scheduling bumps it might be time for an attitude adjustment.
Do you suppose if we look at delays as opportunities we would behave differently? Now, don't roll your eyes at me! Think about it. Could you use your waiting time for prayer? If you have a smart phone you could use your time in line to read a Bible passage or daily devotional. You could pray for the people around you at the doctor's office, they may be carrying heavy burdens and you could be their prayer warrior. Rather than a total waste of your time, waiting could become precious time spent with God. What if you are stuck standing in line because the person near you needs to hear a kind word or see a smile? You could use that time to be a day brightener. Can you see how a minor shift in attitude can change waiting from a curse to a blessing?
What if a traffic delay is being utilized by God to keep you out of a certain situation? Would you think of your delay differently? Maybe you were meant to miss that flight. Perhaps that long freight train is keeping you from an accident or erratic driver on the other side.This brings to mind the multitude of stories I read after the tragedies of 9/11 of people who experienced delays that particular morning. One woman got a blister walking to work in new shoes and stopped to get bandaids, another one stopped to pick up the donuts for the office, one man left a folder at home and returned to get it. There were many others, but these few stuck with me. These minor inconvenient delays, that were probably frustrating and annoying at the time, literally saved the lives of these individuals. Had they been to work on time they would have been in the Twin Towers when the airplanes struck. Makes me all goosebumpy to think about and certainly puts being delayed into a whole different light.
If you schedule is going awry due to a delay look for ways to turn that into an opportunity to be a blessing or receive a blessing. Your light will shine much brighter as a result!
"You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14)
In His Peace -
I had to laugh as I got stuck in traffic today on the way to pick up my daughter. In trying to put into practice while I crawled along at 20mph, I prayed for the semi-drivers I was sandwiched between. I will say it helped to focus on something else other than the fact I was going to be late. I may be on to something here!
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