A Sense of Timing

I write, but very few read the translation.  I play music, but only a handful dance.  I talk, but only a couple can hear.  So I question what good it is to write, play and talk when the world is full of so much information it is a virtual data overload.  Where and what we choose are our priorities determines what we choose to read, watch and listen too.  Thank you for taking the time to visit this blog post.

I too read, watch and listen….and it is the listening and the watching that inspires me the most.  Written words are often hollow and meanings can be lost in interpretation.  But when you see and hear something in a special moment in time…it has special meaning and is not as soon forgotten as black ink on white paper.  I hope to share just a couple examples of special moments with you in this post.

We have six common senses.  What… you say I only know of touch, see, hear, smell and taste; the five common senses of a whole body.  When one is compromised, others take over in efforts to fully understand our surroundings.  When it is dark, we rely on our ears to hear the trouble that may wait in the darkness.  Before we taste we often smell for assurance.  But what sense do you rely on when all of them have been compromised?

Forget about reading you cannot see, forget about listening you cannot hear, your tongue and nose have lost their senses and your hands are numb so no feelings do you gather.  Like an amoeba you drift at the mercy of your surroundings, unable to steer your own way you drift on the tides of life, a gelatos mass of molecular light searching, but seldom finding.  Such is the way of the spirits, adrift with no senses as we know them, but they have other ways to interpret their surroundings.

There are other senses that can help in your journey; senses that take years for most people to explore and find, whereas some others seem to connect to them at an early age.

Here are two I am familiar with and are easy to describe.  I have seen others connect to them and I have been blessed to share in that connection on several occasions.  Some may discount these senses as mere fantasy; these are people that have yet to connect fully with their five given senses.  You will never know the sixth and seventh senses, until you cherish and use the five that were given you at birth.

I feel there are even more than seven senses, kind of depends on your definition of “sense”…let me elaborate:  The dictionary defines it as “a faculty by which the body perceives an external stimulus.”

1 thru 5 you know about….the sixth sense you’ve heard and know about.  It is your instincts, your memories and your totality as a person that influences some of your decisions…it’s that gut feeling.  Ever had it, I’m sure you have.  Did you follow it?  If you’re like me… if I did, things worked out OK, if I didn’t, well not so much.  Your sixth sense is learned over time through your experiences and your ability to remember them, even if subconsciously, to guide you into making good decisions.

The seventh sense is the ability to capitalize on being in the moment, or right place at the right time.  For lack of a better term I’ll call it….a sense of timing.  Let me explain…ever heard of an athlete being in the zone?  Where almost any move he or she makes, no matter what shot is taken, or pass thrown there’s a connection, a made shot and a completed pass.  We’ve seen it in Michael Jordan and Brett Favre. 

I distinctly remember Jordan had a touch of the flu that night…and well Brett…his father had just passed on.  The timing displayed those nights can be described in athletic terms as magical, one in a million and a prime example of how our mind can be utilized to connect in perfect timing…you could say in anticipation of not only the opponent, but your teammates as well.  With your teammates you practice, but when you have a step on your opponent it is that crucial sense of timing that assures victory.

History is made of such moments.  Time… it is the basis of our reality, without it reason has little meaning.  Throughout my life I have heard that our ability to reason separates us from the beasts of the earth.  I must say lately I surely question the reasoning of some of our fellow humans out there…I’d rather take my chances reasoning with a dolphin, crow or chimpanzee than some of the wretched excuses for human kind that exists out there today.

People have a hard time when you try to discuss something out of the norm of our regular senses.  But think about your sense of timing…it is a sense.  Being able to anticipate the future even if for just a split second can be the difference between life and death.  Ever had a close call with death?  Think about the timing of it…one or two seconds either way….you may not be reading this.  Since you are reading this maybe it would be a good time to thank God and His angels for helping to bring you through that…after all He is the Master Time Keeper…and we all hope to have a few guardian angels clearing our paths.

There’s another sense of timing.  It is the unexpected acts that happen throughout your life on any given day at any given moment…that make you pause and say…hum that was interesting.  I spend a great deal of time on this blog talking about music and it obviously has a sense of timing to it.  When I play the harmonica I try to anticipate the next note, the next chord, even in a song I’ve never heard before.  I have had many private moments that leave me thanking God for the pleasure gifted my senses.  You can get in the zone playing music as well and like an athletic experience there’s nothing like it…it’s better than any drug induced high…because it is the natural expression of your God given abilities.

Timing, in a sense, can also come out of nowhere.  There’s an old Kansas song called “Miracles Out Of Nowhere” that I think of when little “acts” of timing happen that make you take note and pause.  Certainly not a miracle in the grand miracle scheme of things but here’s one act of timing that uplifted my senses today.  I was reading the Old Testament Book of Micah this afternoon and had my phone nearby.  The house was quiet, TV and stereo off…and as I was just starting to read Chapter 7 verse 8 my phone goes off with some sound I’ve never heard before.  I looked at the phone and it was a You Tube feed for “Amazing Grace” done on bagpipes.  I was like… what….anyway I pushed the red arrow and of course an ad came up…skipped that and a beautiful rendition of “Amazing Grace” with nature videos and bag pipes starting playing.  I continued to finish reading as Micah is only seven chapters and between the Word and the song I had tears in my eyes as my soul thanked God for His sense of timing.

I don’t know if I communicate this very well.  I hope it makes some sense to you and I hope that you have experienced 100’s of such acts of timing in your life, no matter how big or small they may be.  They are there to remind us, they are there to help us and they are there to confuse your opponents. 

So there you have it…seven senses to consider, six you knew about, the seventh…a sense of timing…  you can now reason about…all our Father God asks in return is found in...

Micah Chapter 6 verse 8.    Have a fabulous New Day.