One evening I found myself on the bridge of the Coast Guard Cutter Hawk. I was staying on board because we would be performing a burial at sea in the morning, and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t late arriving for this important ceremony. It was getting close to midnight and I was dog tired from the 3-hour journey from Fairfield to Galveston. It was a clear night and I was sitting next to one of the crew that was standing watch. The waves were slowly rocking the ship back and forth and I could feel my eyelids starting to droop. I was just about to turn in when the crew member looked at me and asked, “Hey Chaplain, you got a minute to talk.” Thus began a deep conversation about faith, Christ, and personal struggles that lasted long into the morning. I was so tired that night, and I knew the morning would be rough, but I have often wondered what I would have missed out on had I simply gone to bed and requested that we talk about it in the morning.

As Christians, we never know when God is going to call us into action. We would like to think that we will receive some advanced warning when the Lord comes to a calling, but that doesn’t seem to be the way our Savior works. God tends to interrupt lives and redirect them on his own time. In the Gospels we see Jesus calling his Apostles to follow him in the immediate. There was no option for “waiting for the right time.” When Christ calls you, that IS the right time! Perhaps we as Christians and the church should be more pressed to seek the Lord’s timing as opposed to just making things happen ourselves.

I have learned through great trial and error that if we wait upon the Lord to work within our lives or to call us to action, then the timing is perfect. It is when we choose to ignore, redirect, or alter God’s timing that we miss out on the opportunity of the miraculous!

Let’s God with God’s time my friends!

Pastor Mike McVey
Minister – First United Methodist Church, Fairfield TX
ACS Chaplain – United States Coast Guard, Station Galveston TX
Cell: 919-935-2513
Email: pastormike@fumcfairfield.org