Already about two thirds of the year has passed and we are facing September. I was thinking about how to spend the remaining months of this year when suddenly I remembered that I used to write my favorite motto and put it up on the wall every year when I was in my mid teens. I used to write a diary for a long time thanks to my middle school Ethics teacher who made us write a diary for homework. I lost it when my family moved to another place, but one motto I still remember is, “hen you think you are behind, that’ when you are ahead.”
When I think about it now, seeing their teenage daughter putting up on her wall mottos such as ‘ven Now Is Not Late’ and promising herself things, my parents must have been proud on the one hand but must have laughed at the same time thinking of how young I still was and how little I knew of being late in life. For sure, as a teenager, I was still very young and had many more years ahead of me to live.
It has been a long time now since I graduated from university, but at times I experience the truth of the saying, “hen you think you are behind, that’ when you’e ahead.”I even think that, in many situations, perhaps there are no objective or subjective standards that can even evaluate whether I am behind or not.
When Moses did the work of leading the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt where they lived as slaves and into the land of promise, he was 80 years old. He lived for 40 years as a prince of Egypt, 40 years in the wilderness, and 40 years as the leader of the Israelites. David who slew Goliath, even though he had accomplished glorious feats in service to King Saul, was driven and had to hide in the wilderness for a long time before ascending to kingship.
Just like Moses or David, we can see people who are exalted and used for great things, not immediately necessarily, but rather when their time comes. During his tribulations and difficulties, David did not lose hope but said, “he lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”
So we must believe that what God plans to carry out will be accomplished in His own time, even if that is not the time that I or other people have set. If we simply live our daily lives with faith, love, and perseverance, then even if our dreams are not realized until a long time in the future, I am confident that our
lives will, from this moment on, become filled to the brim with joy and happiness.