sermon: Success is often in doing the right thing at the right time

As the expression goes; right timing can be everything. Every thing has its own time. There is a time, and a season for every activity under heaven. (Ecc 3:1) There is a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to harvest.

It is true that a business can succeed because it has been started in the right place and at the right time and another one may fail because it has been started either too late or too early. Any time is not right time!

Because of its importance in all that we do, we should all learn something about ‘right timing’ in life. Generally speaking, right or good timing is the capacity to flow with the rhythm of life.

It is that delicate and calculated move which allows us to flow watchfully and in the wave-direction of that river of life which is time. It is the capacity of receiving all that life has to give us being exactly in the right place and doing the right thing in the right time.

In right timing, there is that element of taking it easy when the time is not right and not missing the opportunity when the right time is now.

In any case, the Talmud saying warns us not to put pressure on time: Who forces time is pushed back by time; who yields to time finds time on his side.

This however does not mean that we should let ourselves be carried by time any how. Far from it! It is just a warning that time is tricky and that we should keep on adjusting ourselves, because time is like the wind; it lifts the light and leaves the heavy!

Unfortunately, for some, never is the right time! They never are ready to start doing something; they keep on postponing most of their activities hence falling into the habit of procrastination.

Time does not wait and ours is limited; Moses, who was once a great procrastinator, wrote, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Ps 90:12).

Once Moses knew that his time on earth was limited he finally got under way to accomplish his purpose, but he was then eighty years old.

If you are a procrastinator, ‘learn to number your days, and realize that your life will quickly pass’ (Ps 90:10). And this should get us moving.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are people who may think that anytime is the right time. This is missing the point.

The Bible and many strategists tell us that there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

History teaches us that what made David’s kingdom the greatest dynasty in Israel’s history was because David urged his military generals always to conduct a long study trying to understand the times before taking any military decision on any war they waged. (1 Chron 12:32).

It is because of the importance of good timing and the danger of missing it that the Church urges all Christians to meditate on God’s timing especially during this time of Advent.

God himself when acting in human history shows us that he is aware of the importance of acting in the right time.

The Bible says, “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son” (Gal 4:4). He did not keep on postponing the idea of sending Jesus to us, nor did he send him when it was too early or too late. Just at fullness of time.

Saint Luke tells us the precise time when the Lord addressed John the Baptist interiorly in order to reveal to him his mission: that of preparing for the coming of the Lord! Many generations of Israel had waited for that moment hoping that it would happen during their life time but in vain.

When the time chosen by God came, St. Luke recorded it in a clear and precise manner so that everyone would be able to make reference to the time when He who is eternal, beyond time, and who is therefore the Master of time, would come to earth.

“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. “ (Lk. 3:1-4)

When Luke uses all the above words to describe the time in which God chose to react, he teaches us that it was a special time chosen by God. It is a time framework that we, as people cannot influence.

During this period of Advent the Church urges us to read well the signs of God’s time so that when Christ comes to us, he shall find us ready to receive him. And that shall be excellent right-timing.