Thursday, May 7, 2009

timing is everything

There are prayer requests written on butcher paper throughout the hallways of the school. They had a prayer night last weekend where people were invited to come in and pray throughout the night, and they had taped to the wall various prayer requests that people had mentioned to pray for about the school. My favorite: "Pray for us to be on time to school."

Don't get me wrong, I thought this was a fantastic idea (this has been done earlier in the year and hosted in someone's home but this time focused on the school and thus had it here). There were lots of great and serious prayer requests. That one just cracked me up. I could think of several students (and teachers) who definitely need help in that department.

The concept of time seems to be quite fluid around here. I understand that different cultures have different viewpoints on time and all of that. I realize that families and circles of friends have different concepts on time. I also fully understand that sometimes, well, life just happens. Sometimes you're just late for reasons out of your control. That's all well and good.

But when you're ALWAYS late, that's not "life happening."

And sometimes, things start and end at a specific time. And when people are late and you have to leave "on time," it makes for a not so fun thing. I struggle with that. I feel like my flexibility and relinquishment of control have been big steps of growth for me since moving here, some out of a conscience effort and others not so much.

So I'm not going to get on my soap box about that or tell you what message the continually late person is subconsciously communicating to the others (again, this goes for people who are beyond the occasional times but always late to everything). I am just enjoying that prayer request as God showing me a sense of humor after a particularly frustrating afternoon when everyone was late to something, thus not allowing us to finish or end on time and I end up looking like the person who ruins it by having to leave at the appointed "end time." Lovely. Oh well.

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