Time Points

It was a late Friday afternoon. My advisor just landed in Tucson, AZ the day before his big talk which would determine the fate of our funding for the upcoming year. I stayed behind to complete a few more experiments to support our hypothesis. The experiments were based on highly important time points, and if I missed the time points, then I might miss the biological process we were interested in.

Two hours after treatment, I sat down in front of our microscope. My heart was pounding. Sure, these experiments weren’t the most important in the world, but they were the first step from disbelief to opening to change.

I saw a few promising things in the microscope, but it was not quite perfect.

Then the fire alarm sounded. It took forty-five minutes to resolve the issue.

I missed my time point.

Time points are a very common issue in biology. Everything in our bodies is perfectly ordered to work at a certain time in a certain place. This is not just in development, but in every single one of our cells. In fact, many cancers are caused by over activating these processes without stopping. Therefore we have overactive cells dominating an area. Some mental health disorders are caused by overactive neurons that fire when they should be silent.

Everything has a time and a place.

This is not just a scientific truth, but it is also a part of life.

Much like how each cell has their own ordered life, we too have our own development, our own inner workings, that determine where we are in life. I am not saying that we were created without a choice, but rather that who we are is determined by what is going on in our hearts.

Cells can only perform a certain activity when it has all of the components necessary.

We can only move forward in certain aspects of when we have everything in order.

There is something very important that I need to point out. Each and every cell is unique. Liver cells make fats. Neurons send electrical signals. Muscle cells extend and contract. Because each cell has a different purpose, they have different time points for different processes. A skin cell will go through mitosis many times, but a neuron will never go through mitosis again. Therefore, when we look at different processes, we need to recognize that the time points may change for each cell.

When we look at our own lives, we need to recognize that everything will work out, but in the proper time and place for our purpose.

Should we follow the Spirit’s lead, we will find our vocations, and they will come at the right time.

We cannot look at the lives of others and assume that we are any less important because we haven’t found ourselves yet. It does not matter that someone else is making six figures and you are making just enough to make rent as a graduate student. It does not matter that your friends are all engaged and you haven’t gone on a date in months. It does not matter that your friends are buying their first homes and you are living with roommates in an apartment. It does not matter what everyone else is doing.

What matters is that you are following your Vocation, your call to holiness.

Everything else is not a big deal.

Because as you find who you are in Christ, you will find where you belong and what you are meant to do in that space.

I think that sometimes we think that we missed the “time points” of our lives far too often. We say that there is no hope for us because we are not exactly where we expected to be when we wanted to be there. We will blame it on something that happened in our lives which interrupted the trajectory we were on before.

It’s in that low point where we have the choice: Do we keep going or do we throw it all away?

Do we accept God’s gifts as they come to us?

“So I guess we have to turn off the scope then?” my undergrad looked at me. She is meticulous with details, which is extremely helpful for me, a not-so detail-oriented person.

“Ya know what?” I threw my hands up, “Let’s just look anyway!”

We set up a new slide and looked in to the microscope. It was an hour after the desired time point, a point that I once thought to be perfect, and we were not expecting anything special. Of course, it is when we least expect it that something beautiful happens.

“No. Way,” I gasped as I looked in to the microscope.

“What?” my undergrad looked up quickly.

“Look!” I squealed again and pulled up the image on the computer. My undergrad and I started to cheer a little to ourselves as we started pointing to the screen over and over again. At long last, our experiments were starting to prove the model our lab has been working on for over a decade.

We were funded.

The experiment was not perfect at my initial time point. I was impatient, so I looked for the earliest chance of making it work. However, the cell was not ready to create the structures we were looking for. Because there was an interruption in my plan, I was given the opportunity to look at the situation in a new way, with fresh eyes.

It was not perfect at first, but in time and in line with those cells’ biology, the process occurred perfectly in time.

That’s why you should never throw out an experiment before analyzing all of the data.

Whenever I think I am behind in life because my friends are moving in to upper management positions, getting married, and buying houses, I like to think back to a parable Jesus told about a farmer hiring workers for the vineyard. He came back time and time again, and at the end of the day, he saw some people still sitting and waiting to be hired.

He asked them why they were still sitting there, and the men explained that they had nowhere else to go. Moved for them, the man hired the workers, and they received the same pay as everyone else.

If we hold fast to the truth that God loves us and wants the best for us, then we will receive our reward.

If we chase a Vocation of Holiness, then we will be given the perfect life for that calling.

Sometimes it makes the results being a little sub-optimal in the beginning. Sometimes that means thinking that you missed a time point. Sometimes that means sitting and waiting in the same space for years, just living a faithful life. Regardless of what your life of holiness looks like Dear Reader, I know that everything will work out beautifully for you.

Don’t throw away a good experiment just because you didn’t hit the time point you were expecting.

Don’t compare yourself to others.

Just love Jesus, and all will work out just fine.

“May today there be peace within. 

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. 

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. 

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. 

May you be content knowing you are a child of God. 

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. 

It is there for each and every one of us.”

~Saint Teresa of Avila