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Time is a Measure.


“Processes.  Processes are stupid.  I want what I want, and I want it when I want it.  This waiting around business is dumb and I hate it. “

These are words and phrases and self-speeches I’ve said in my head AND out loud for years.  This morning my perspective shifted just enough to help me appreciate the process even if I don’t understand or agree with the process.  Process typically involves change.  I can’t think of a process that would take place only to render the exact same object from the beginning of the process.  As I try to remove all-encompassing statements from my vocabulary it’s safe to assume there might be at least one process that starts with something and ends with the exact same something.  It’s doubtful, but I wouldn’t want to be presumptuous.  (For the sake of this entry, I’m taking a license and declaring no process starts with something and ends with that SAME something)  

For me, the biggest hurdle is the TIME inside a process.  Sometimes there’s no way to know how long a process will take.  Some processes have typical time frames, others are just “when it’s time” kind of processes.  Those are the worst; the surprise nobody EVER wants.  Like coming home to find your sewer pipes in your brand new house burst and the mess has been waiting for you for days.  (True story)  Processes with typical time frames like pregnancy or a school year can still be challenging because you can mark different seasons inside that process that may be difficult or happy.  For me, the second trimester of pregnancy could have last for a year and I would have been thrilled.  First and third trimesters weren’t quite so glorious for me, but the end of that whole process gave me the most joyful and life-giving miracle I’ve ever received from Heaven.  (Outside of salvation, of course)  The process of a school year is filled with similar highs and lows.  It’s fun to start a school year and there are fun times inside the year.  The sight of summer coming near is incredibly motivating, but surviving those last few weeks before the final day can be grueling.  It’s still a process though.  It’s still a space of time where change takes place to produce something different. Maybe the something different is new and improved; maybe the something different is exhausted and shredded.  Either way, there’s something different at the end of the process.

This school year has been nothing short of a miracle process for me.  I have this app on my phone that shows me photos from years back on that same date and the changes I’ve encountered are happy, encouraging, heartbreaking, and hope-giving.  When I see the ones of my little angel and how he’s grown my whole body smiles because he’s just so wonderful.  I can see his personality developing and his mischievous grin that hasn’t changed.  When I see shots of where I was a year ago, two years ago, four years ago I am reminded of God’s grace and how I am so thankful I chose and continue to choose to follow His guidance and His peace.  That choice wasn’t and isn’t always easy in the beginning.  I make that choice still because I trust that the results of following Him will be better than the results of me making my own choices without including Him.  On a very regular basis, even YESTERDAY, I learned AGAIN that processes take time.  Time hurries for nothing and no one.  Time is a measure.  Time cannot be abbreviated or extended.  God is outside of time.  God is with me.

Romans 8:18 MSG version – (summary) There’s no comparison between the hard times of now and the coming good times… meanwhile the joyful anticipation waits.

Romans 8:18 NKJ version – (New Kimber Jones) – Things aren’t getting better from where they are right now.  The better things coming will be completely unrelated to now.  It’s like comparing apples to hot rods, not apples to oranges.

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