The writer Douglas Adams had a great line, “I love deadlines…I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

I have that posted by my desk at work. It is always good for a laugh because everyone there knows how very seriously I actually take due dates.

This past week I had a deadline to submit a report to the California Department of Education. In order to file the report online my figures had to be certified accurate by our County Auditor. The afternoon of the due date we experienced a county-wide power outage. The auditor’s office could not get the signed certification to me in time for my deadline.

Although missing the due date was completely out of my control, I felt tense and edgy until I had the certification in my hand and the report uploaded to CDE the next day.

You could say that I am a type A personality, I suppose. Most of the time I thrive on lists, schedules and deadlines. They give me the illusion of being in control. Then something happens, like a massive power outage, and I am forced to step back and just wait.  And you know what?  Nothing terrible happened. I got the work done the following day and everything went on as usual.

My fretful sleepless night served no purpose, at all. Except maybe to remind me that God is the only one who is truly in control.

Thankfully He doesn’t give us deadlines… or maybe just one. If we fail to accept his son as our Lord and Savior during our brief passage on Earth, we will have missed the real deadline, the line between death and eternal life.

I already completed that item on my To Do list, so I am going to try to keep all the other deadlines in perspective. I’ll sleep better that way.