Am I too Late?

Now that I am living and working in Hotlanta, I often find myself stuck in traffic. When you are stuck in traffic you only have so many choices: swear at your fellow traffic victims, sing at the top of your lungs, pray or think.  Since I have lots of time in traffic, my trip usually consists of a combination of each of these options. On one such day, I caught myself thinking about my new career. I began adding up the number of days until I will be eligible to retire; which is a LOT since, I started this job last week!

Why didn't I start this job a decade ago. Why haven't I started investing in a 401K.
Did I start too... late?!?

It seems I start everything late. (A special thanks to Zuckerberg for never letting me forget how late I really am; constantly bombarding my newsfeed with pictures of other people's weddings, kids, and even grandkids).  I remember one particular Sunday where my pastor was describing his personal journey of following God through hardships to end up where he is today.  I was tracking with every word of his crazy journey whispering internal amens and hallelujahs as I thought, "we are the same!", but then right at the end of his message, he dropped an A-bomb.  This handsome pastor, husband and father of 3 revealed he was also the tender young age of 31. His journey of hardships only reinforced my constant fear of the too lates. Later that day, as I put on my hot pink polo and drove to my barely minimum wage job, I thought about the ring that wasn't on my finger, the kids not at my house and the ministry not on my resume. (I know. I know we don't do ministry to boost our resume, but it flowed and you know what I am getting at!) 
 

Maybe your too lates and my too lates are completely different things. Regardless of the cause, the fear of the too late can be crippling. I don't think Christian cliches help anyone, nor do I want to be your 1st grade Sunday school teacher (unless, of course, you are 6, in which case, I'll see you on Sunday), so I'll try to limit the cheese factor.  The last time I was in the middle of dreading the too lates, God hit me with His own "A-bomb", I didn't start everything too late! It was 13 years ago when God called me to start this wonderful adventure of following Him. For 13 years I have been in right relationshp with my perfect Savior and have been growing to know more and more of what that truly means. Maybe in the eyes of the world I am starting too late for lots of life's important milestones, but at the end of my life, I want to say I was on time for the things that truly mattered. Scripture is littered with examples of God choosing the too late to serve  him right on time (Abraham, Noah and Paul- to name a few).

"The world is passing away, along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17).

So in conclusion: It's not too late to be on time for the things that matter (eternally).

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