“How long will it take?” This is one of the questions that I am asked frequently in my day job as a lawyer. This is kind of like asking your doctor, “How long have I got, Doc?” The truthful answer to these questions is “I don’t know.” Lawsuits and life each has its own time frame, which is out of our control.
I hate it when the professionals (like myself) say, “You have a 50-50 chance…” Really? How about a 10-20-40-8-22 chance? You see there are way more than one alternative outcome to any situation. You might survive the head-on collision on the freeway but be in a coma for 15 years. You might be struck by lightning or be shocked in the bathtub. According to the beliefs of many, one of the wisest and richest men who ever lived struck a surrendered pose in Ecclesiastes 3. “There is a time to be born, a time to die, a time to sow and a time to reap, a time to be born and a time to die…”
A classic song goes, “You can’t hurry love, you just have to wait, Love don’t come easy now, it’s a game of give and take…” Why are we in such a hurry to get through our lives, both the trials, tribulations and triumphs. We need to slow down, we move too fast, we have to make the morning last, right? Paul Simon had it right I think. Or the country poet Mac Davis, “You’ve got to stop and smell the roses.”
It’s trying to figure out what is going to happen and when it is going to happen that finds so many of us in that stressful state of mind, worry. Jesus said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow…” Paul said, “Don’t be anxious about anything…” Think of all the billions of dollars that would be saved on anti-anxiety medications if the followers of Jesus could learn to live the Jesus way.
Ah well, that’s what I’m thinking about in the early morning hours this Saturday…
