Playing Catch Up

This week I’m playing catch up on a lot of fronts. As we entered into the last month of the year, I was taking stock of what was on schedule and what was not. What ideals would I have to give up and what could I salvage and probably still make it to finish line. So, it was time to roll up my sleeves and play catch up.

Reading is one of my catch up activities and I must admit I’m really enjoying it. It is fiction December and I get to bombard my imagination with thrillers, tales from West Africa, French romance and classic tales of last century. The unread serious stuff can go to next year’s reading list – unapologetically. And suddenly, waking up at 4am to make an hour of reading time does not seem daunting anymore! Catching an extra chapter below the covers with a poor reading light does not seem to hurt my eyes at all – wow!

But not all catch ups are fun and thrill-filled. Some catch ups happen because we got derailed by events beyond our control. Some are filled with bitter tears as we imagine where we would have been had the detour not thrown us off-course.

But . . .

I do not believe in coincidence. Everything happens for a reason and in God’s plan for our lives. Good or bad, for our good or for His glory. And there’s always something through it or out of it to be grateful for. Heck if I can’t be grateful for what has happened, I can be grateful for what did not happen . . . because, it could have been worse, but it was not.

Remember the farmer whose horse ran away and came back with a wild one? The wild horse which broke the farmer’s son’s leg as he tried to train it? And that was a few days before the army came to town and conscripted all the healthy and fit young men, leaving the farmer’s now crippled son? In every instance, the farmer responded “It is neither good, nor bad, it just is.”

Because I am not all-knowing and neither do I have the blue print for my future, it is not good and neither is it bad. It just is. And I get to choose how I respond to everything that happens in life, even the unpleasant detours. In the meantime, I play catch up on all fronts, and especially those that have to do with catching up with dear ones that I haven’t seen in a while, or indulging my creative side or my imaginative side.

You still have 20 days to chase that goal. You never know, you might just slide in as the clock strikes midnight, but you have to get going if you’re to give it a fighting chance. 

“Better late than never.” – Spencer Johnson

 

 

 

 


 

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