TIMER

I've always said to myself and to other people that it'd be awesome to have the novel of our lives. We'd know exactly what would happen, when to expect it and most importantly, we could be prepared for it. What I really meant by that was, we'd know exactly who we were getting married to. It sounds boring, almost like an arranged marriage, being "forced" to marry that person. But in my mind, it sounded great. It was a dream that I wished would come true. There would be no more guessing, no more wondering, no more heart breaks and no more wasting time.

Perfect.

But it's not perfect. I sat down to watch a movie the other day and I chose TIMER. I had no idea what the movie was about, but the cover looked interesting. I was definitely surprised by the reality of TIMER and how the world would be like. It was really a slap in the face or... wrist. It'd be terrible to know, it'd be terrible to be basing one's happiness on a timer instead of God's time or when you absolutely knew your ready for a relationship.

So TIMER is about a wrist watch that tells you exactly when you are going to meet the love of your life. When you turn 14, you can choose to get the watch for a low fee of $79.99 and viola, it will tell you the exact years, hours, days and minutes until you meet your true love. Once the watch zero's out, you are guaranteed to meet your love within 24 hours. All you have to do is look into your love's eyes and both of the timer's will beep and that's when you know you found them. Whatever happens after that is up to you. Yes, this method takes out the guess work, but it also takes out everything else as well. Sometimes people have to enter into relationships to learn more about themselves, to grow or even just to trust in God that they really don't know anything.

Not only that, the main character of the movie had a strange case. She was 31 and her timer hadn't even started yet. You find out later in the movie that is because the "love of her life" had chosen not to get the timer yet. She became so consumed with the timer though that she tossed away good relationships and guys that would have made her happy, maybe even more happy then who the timer chose for her. Finally, after allowing herself to fall in love with a guy that didn't have a timer, she decides to take her's off.

Great decision. That is, until her timer begins ticking away right at the moment they were about to take it off.

Five hours.

That is what her timer said. Only five hours until she met "him." The offer was too good to be true. Stay with the guy she honestly, truly fell in love with or pick the guy the timer said for her to be with. At the moment, she couldn't decide. She waited all those years, denied herself all that time. She had to at least know who it was. When her timer beeps and she see's "him," the world stops, time stops.. blah blah, but basically, she can't go back to the other guy now that she has "him." It's an unhappy, but happy ending, right?

Well what if her "true love" hadn't gotten the timer? Would she have continued to let life pass her, deny herself happiness?

If she had taken off the timer and chosen the other guy, would she have second guessed herself for the rest of her life? Wondered who the other guy was, the one she was "supposed" to be with?

Of course there is no real answer, but the reality is a scary one. I'm glad that we don't have those, that we don't have our life's novel, but that we have a better guarantee. God's guarantee. Guarantee that we will find the love of our lives, but that he/she will come when He thinks we are ready.

When the time is right.