At Just The Right Time

There was a song by Dr. John released in 1973 titled Right Place Wrong Time that has a ton of confusing lyrics in it but certainly has a catchy beat and delivery. To those of us in recovery it actually makes sense because our lives mirrored the chaos in those lyrics.

In these days of ultra sensitivity the words "I'd have said the right thing, but must have used the wrong line"  have personally been lived by me so I must think way before I speak because the right words and timing of the delivery is essential when dealing with folks. In truth we are not always right in our delivery and must be humble enough to admit we may be wrong.

In the life of Jesus you can see that he too seemed offensive to those who did not understand his message of hope, but to those who did he was a breath of fresh air. We are obviously not him, nor do we possess the divine skills he had but we can take heart in knowing he made a way for our constant shortcomings.

​You see at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly......But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Parts of Romans 5:6-8

We may be wrong in the world's eyes but in God's world he always makes us right.  If you look at the constant struggles of the Israelites to accept, reject, disregard, regard and totally worship other gods, despite what great things the real God had done for them, you always see God give them a chance to get it right. They were always given the right place to be by him, but seemed to have the wrong response to his generosity.

Habakkuk even had the audacity to think God had no idea what he was doing allowing the good but tolerating such evil. But God set him straight as he does with us in these challenging words:

Though it linger, wait for it, it will certainly come and not delay! Habakkuk 2

We can take that many ways, divide it up in conversation, but it is certainly telling us God's timing is way above what we understand. We are a constant work in progress, we are impatient, sometimes too quick to judge and while we give up on folks God never does. Here's something we know for certain:

It is always just the right time to stop doing the wrong thing, but it will linger if we follow the wrong God!