Let our deadlines not blind us to God’s timelines; let them be guidelines that enable us to play our part better rather than to take over God’s part.
We live in a world where deadlines are a constant presence. Many of us even feel that, without deadlines, we don’t function as well. Deadlines can inspire us to bring out our best, pushing aside distractions and enabling us to focus on what needs to be done. In retrospect, we may even appreciate how deadlines helped us achieve things we might not have otherwise reached and discover capacities we wouldn’t have known we possessed.
While deadlines have their positives, they can also have negatives—especially if we become so obsessed with the deadline that we become blind to everything else. Deadlines are meant to inspire, not to enslave us. If we become overly fixated on a deadline, insisting that things work out our way no matter what, we may find ourselves becoming unnecessarily agitated when things don’t go as planned. This agitation, whether it results in outward explosions or inward implosions, can worsen the situation. At such times, deadlines no longer inspire us but enslave us, which ultimately leads to frustration.
Deadlines should inspire us to give our best effort. However, they shouldn’t blind us to the reality that our best efforts alone are not enough to guarantee results. Numerous factors, often beyond our control, ultimately work under God’s jurisdiction, and he works according to his timeline, not according to our deadlines. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take deadlines seriously; it simply means we shouldn’t take them so seriously that we forget to take God seriously.
If we use deadlines constructively, they ensure we do our part to the best of our capacity. But if deadlines become our reason or excuse for trying to assume God’s position and play his role as the supreme controller, we will inevitably end up frustrated. The Bhagavad-gita (2.41) recommends having clear, singular goals, yet it also urges us not to become attached to results, knowing that our actions alone do not produce those results (2.47). Through this dual dynamic—using deadlines to maximize our efforts while remembering that God will play his part according to his timeline—we can function most optimally.
If we hold on to a service attitude toward God, then in his timeline, he may bring things to fruition in ways far more wonderful than we could have anticipated according to our timeline.
Summary:
- Deadlines can inspire us to maximize our efforts, achieve what might have otherwise been unachievable, and discover untapped capacities.
- If deadlines enslave us by becoming our sole psychological fixation, they can become an excuse to attempt to usurp God’s role as the ultimate controller.
- By using deadlines to better play our part while letting God play his part according to his timeline, we allow him to work things out in a way that may be far better than we could have imagined.
Think it over:
- Recall a time when setting a deadline benefited you and list the specific benefits.
- How can deadlines backfire from both psychological and philosophical perspectives?
- How does the Gita guide us to set deadlines while respecting God’s timelines?
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02.41 Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.
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