Timing is everything. 

Arrive five minutes late and you miss the bus. Arrive five minutes early and you’ve spoiled your surprise party. A thunderstorm in the midst of a flood hurts, not helps. Timing for a joke can make the difference between uproarious laughter and utter crickets. 

When it comes to serving God and ministering to others, we can get so eager to help that we get ahead of ourselves and don’t realize that – though we’re ready, willing, and able to help – waiting for the right time is the most prudent course of action.

As we look at Jesus’ ministry, He consistently reminded those around him that not only was time important but timing was critical. 

Jesus could have certainly started His ministry long before He did. However, it wasn’t time yet. The timing was not right, according to God’s plan. 

Recall how many times Jesus told people NOT to reveal He was the Messiah or that He healed people or that He was the Son of God. In fact, Jesus rebuked his own mother regarding timing. Here’s how John describes this in John 2:1-5:

“On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.’”

Jesus certainly had the ability to do what his mother had asked of Him but Jesus knew that was mother’s desire in that moment but it was not His Father’s plan.

When we pray, we will get what we want by – in essence – asking God for what His will, His desire is. 

Wisdom is defined by seeing things as God sees them, not by how we see them. 

And so it is for action. 

Are we acting like Mary and being impulsive in the moment because we have the ability to help immediately or are we acting like Jesus and knowing that the hour hasn’t arrived yet for God wants us to act.

As it says in Scripture:

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:”

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

We see people who need help and want to help immediately. However, we don’t always recognize if it is our timing we’re following or God’s. Now, if there is someone trapped in a burning building or someone who is drowning or someone who is choking then the timing is evident – NOW is the time to act.

Time. Timing. When to act. When to wait. Discerning the difference.

When it comes to the incarcerated men Tony and I serve, time has a different meaning. 

For those in prison, they “do time”. They have nothing but “time on their hands”. They “mark time” until their release. While in prison, time is segmented by activity – wake up, meals, lights out, and everything in between. 

Tony and I know full well the importance of timing. We know that time is of the essence when it comes to men who have been paroled and how quickly they can fall back into old patterns, old habits, old influences, old pressures. 

Falling back into their former life often leads the paroled to re-offending and doing time in prison again.

This dynamic is one of the reasons that led us to found Freedom Lake so that the men we ministered to who wanted to be “men on mission” following their release would have a place of refuge to live. 

A place to live that would be free of the negative factors and societal pressures that could lead them to engage in the behaviors and actions that led them to be incarcerated in the first place.

It is during this season that we have been keenly aware of God’s timing. 

We have received many “go” signals but, and this may surprise you, we have received many “wait” signals. 

Tony and I are ready, willing, and able to do God’s will for us and for this ministry but there are times when God sends a clear signal that the next step isn’t meant to be taken at our speed but His.

And this is where we find ourselves today. 

Our journey in making Freedom Lake a reality has been a long time coming and has been amazing. However, we have experienced some things and learned some things we weren’t expecting which, as it turns out, has been exactly what we needed. 

Our ministry has been growing and Freedom Lake itself has blossomed faster than we anticipated. Still, there are times when God has put up a “stop sign” not to discourage us or turn us away from Freedom Lake. No, God needs us to slow down at certain points to make sure that we are building Freedom Lake upon a rock and not shifting sand. 

But what does that mean?

For starters, it means that Freedom Lake is not about finding an available property, securing it, and moving in the men who have been accepted as “men on mission” as one would move an adult child into their college dorm. 

Freedom Lake has never been about logistics or location. Freedom Lake has been about disciple-making and making sure the traps Satan laid for them that led to incarceration never trap them again.

And that second part is why God slowed us down because we were not fully prepared for just how powerful that pull was going to be. 

From the moment our initial group of Freedom Lake men came to us, the world started chipping away at them trying to draw them back into lives and choices that flew in the face of the spirit and the mission of Freedom Lake. 

We now understand that God knew we needed to deal with this long before we did and put up the stop sign so we can address this issue now and for the future so that Freedom Lake becomes strong and sustainable.

Freedom Lake itself as a ministry moves forward. Freedom Lake as a physical space – by God’s design and timing – has slowed until He knows we’re ready to move to the next phase.

And that is where you come in.

We have been incredibly blessed by people like you who have rushed to support us in many ways. Freedom Lake would not be where it is today if not for God’s grace and your support. 

We have; however, reached a point where we are repeatedly being approached by amazing people who want to help and want to help NOW with donations of furniture or offers to help move the men in or asking when we’re moving men into the first property and when additional properties will be added.

We’re not ready yet. The timing isn’t right. 

The hour of God’s timing has not come. 

We can’t tell you when we’ll be ready for certain things, particularly those involving the physical space and physical donations such as furniture and household items. Only God can tell us and you when the timing is right for that. When God moves us and you to act, we’ll know and we’ll be prepared to do so.

What we can tell you is that God has been revealing so much to us during this “in-between place.” As we wrote in last month’s article, “God does not use a switch to make things happen; He uses time and distance as a way to teach and train those He uses for the task or mission He has in mind for them.”

If you are ready to act now to support Freedom Lake, there is one thing that can be done and that is to sign up today for our 4th Annual God’s Harvest Celebration coming up in just a few short weeks. 

You’ll hear stories of how God has lifted the men we are mentoring from tragedy to triumph and how He is revealing the next steps He has planned in their lives during this season… and we urge you to get a front-row seat. 

William Cowper wrote a hymn in 1773 called “God Moves in a Mysterious Way”.  One of the verses goes: “His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding ev’ry hour; The bud may have a bitter taste,  But sweet will be the flow’r.”

And so it will be with Freedom Lake. In God’s timing, not ours. 

But you need to attend the 2021 God’s Harvest Event to get ALL the “insider” details on the mission, vision, and purpose of Freedom Lake that you won’t get to hear unless you join us that evening.

Freedom Lake… it’s different from anything you’ve seen before!