One of my dearest friends, Jaime, taught me one of the best lessons I ever learned, smack dab in the middle of a four-alarm crisis about 20 years ago.
We were all in a huddle room because of a major outage. Folks were scrambling and looking to the two of us as the senior guys for advice, but not giving us any room to talk. Jaime turned and asked someone to go to the hardware store.
They asked why.
He said “when this much (I don’t say this word) is hitting the fan, sometimes we just need bigger fans.”
The room stopped, took two seconds, and then everybody started laughing for about ten seconds. Within three minutes Jaime and I had figured out the problem. And no, it didn’t involve bigger fans. His joke was enough to break the tension so we could do our job and think. We needed the time, and he was smart enough to get us that time.
Time is a weird thing, huh. It seems like the more we need it, the less of it we have … and the more we have, the more we waste it.
I keep a few watches that don’t tell me the actual “time” anymore, but they do keep watch (see what I did there!) over memories. Watches worn by my loved ones, or given to me by the same loved ones.
And the watches (yes, plural) I do keep for telling time? They’re tools that keep me honest. The fancy digital one tells me all sorts of stuff. The backup in my backpack is there in case things go sideways (always the Boy Scout). And my phone tells me what time it is where the folks I work with are, so I’m not callin’ them during their dinner. There’s that word again.
The Bible reminds us we should always be prepared for Him, because we don’t know when He’ll be back. But (and I’m not saying this in a flippant way) should it matter? If we’re trying to make earth a bit more like Heaven whenever He returns, then He should simply see us being the Good Samaritans He showed us how to be.
He’s already watchin’ out for us. Our job is to take the time when it counts.
Just a thought from a guy who tries to never have too little time to recognize the need to take a breath and read a room.
Bible Verses
Questions
Do you have any memories from friends or mentors like the one I’d share of Jaime above ??? We’d love to hear them …
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