Sometime You Have to Wait

Sometimes generosity has to wait. Instead of giving now, you need to wait and give when the time is right. We are sure there are examples of times when that is true with money but, surprise...surprise, we are talking about ideas in this case.

Tonight Jon heard a short interview with the Country music group Zac Brown Band talking about their latest hit - Goodbye in Her Eyes. In the interview one of the band members shared how the song took 12 years to write. They worked on it over time and then finally one day the last piece came together. Only then were they ready to release it. The artist talked about how he loved those songs that built over time.

What can we learn from this successful musician? Simply this . . . even if you have something to share, it doesn't mean it is time to do so. It may not be ready. In the end the value of your gift is not only in the sharing of it but in the completeness of it. That means that if you sense that your idea still needs more time to cook or more input then be brave enough to hold off.

We need to resist the shouts of our "Microwave Generation" and allow things to develop the way they should. Only then will they have significant impact as we share them.

Comments

Wes Roberts said…
Jon...excellent post. Thank you! Have tweeted it. Wisdom abounds in your words. ...Wes (one of your parents oldest friends)
Johanna said…
Jon and Mindy, I recently wanted to share an idea with a wide group of people. I spent hours crafting the message. In the end, I didn't have a peace about it. I felt my motives weren't entirely pure ... like I wasn't hitting the right tone. And it wasn't that I came to that conclusion on my own. It took sharing the material with a trusted colleague, one who could say the tone wasn't right. So I've shelfed the material to allow myself to reflect and change my heart a bit until I can use the best tone.
Wes, thanks for your kind words. It is a huge challenge to time our generosity to God's leading isn't it?
Johanna, great example of the need to wait before you share your ideas. The challenge for you will be not to loose what you have written or forget about the ideas you are working on. How can you continue to process them without simply moving on?
Johanna said…
Thanks Jon and Mindy. I felt so badly that I didn't strike the right tone in my first draft. I pride myself on my diplomacy skills - and it's unusual for me to mess up on tone. It made me feel really badly. I'm struggling to return to the ideas because I feel I failed on a character trait. Does that make sense?

I need to somehow distance myself from those feelings first.
Johanna, we have had similar situations and feelings about ideas we wanted to share. In fact, there is still a draft of an article written that was the wrong tone and is waiting for the right moment to share.

One of the keys to get beyond the emotions and feelings of failure might be to write about the idea in a very different context and for a different audience. That would allow you to approach it very differently.