Opportunity

The glass dropped to the floor, broke in several pieces, I lost my balance and a stepped barefooted on the body of it, and cringed in pain. This hurt! Maybe should have had a couple of stitches but instead made a makeshift butterfly bandage complete with gauze and antibiotic cream and continued on. The funny thing is for the past several days,the urge to go for a good walk was stirring inside of me. The weather was pretty, the sun was out but there were others things that I allowed to take priority and I sidestepped the walk in an effort to stay within routine and take care of the responsibilities. The moral, catch the opportunity when you can for you do not know when it will come again or things will change and you will might miss the joy! I will have the chance again, maybe even today...and I will charge upon it.


Opportunity, like a butterfly, lands softly and is fleeting, and it is perfectly staged for God's progressive format. Some opportunities are for us personally and may very well will enhance our life or stretch our growth while others may have a decided impact of passers by or people in need.



They come and go for a myriad of different reasons, but many times we have our heads buried too deep in the sands of self engagement to take notice of a unique presentation that just may peek our curiosity and delight. Be on watch today for the word opportunity. We hear it in TV ads, read about it in news flashes, are confronted by it in daily challenges, yet seldom take time to tap into it.

Sometimes it is out of fear, sometimes out of inconvenience, sometimes out of pure laziness, but just because we don't act upon them doesn't mean they are not either there bold faced in our midst, or quietly positioned on our path.



Opportunities are about us at every turn. They actively yet subtly embrace that something that we can say or do or act upon that may be out of our comfort zone, or not on our scheduled routine activity list, but that has sparked an internal quest of our existence with an initiative to respond. If we pull our heads out of our sand pile long enough, we just might be enticed to seize the opportunity that knocks before us, especially if that opportunity is one that God can and will use for his glory....and in serving others.



When we accept the invitation to seize an opportunity, it is us who will ultimately be the benefactor even if that opportunity is about serving others rather than ourselves.We will either grow in experience, or learn a lesson of merit in the process. Doing for others, no matter how little or big is showing others what the heart of God looks like. We can each talk a good game but if we are not willing to stop our busied schedules and notice opportunities that surround us and act upon them...then we are missing the chance to show someone else what God looks like. Opportunities are not hard to see if we are watching for them. But too many times we don't want to attend to someone who is in need becasue it would get us off track ...off schedule...off course! But if Jesus is watching us ....which he is....and he sees us pass up an opportunity that he has placed in our path...he knows that we have not only passed up an opportunity to help another person but we have also passed up a blessing to know how it feels to be kind and compassionate to someone in need.

Helping someone in need ....You have experienced that...I have experienced that....and it does give us a felling of fullness in God...if just for a moment. But God wants those moments to run together so that we will be filled with his goodness on an ongoing basis. We don't have to seek opportunities we just must be open to them when they are presented. Our ways of showing others what the heart of God looks like can and will vary according to the gifts that God has blessed us with. Some are monetary gifts, some are encouraging words, some are actual acts of kindness that we have to take time to reach out and give....some are spending time with someone who is lonely...or caring for someone who is sick...or leading someone who is blind, or picking up something for someone who has a hard time bending over...or making a phone call to let someone know they are being thought of. There are millions of opportunities...before us...if we just take time to notice them. Some you have given for us to act upon in serving others, some you have laid our feet for you purposes in our own lives. Help us Lord, to have the wisdom to carefully select from your offered opportunities. Give is the perseverance to seize them with confidence. And make us mindful to notice how one opportunity can spark a flurry of related events in your economy, and in our hearts and minds. For that is your way....life is just a sequence of one event after another, and each coincidence or opportunity is merely a situation that you have chosen to remain anonymous in; but we who love you and seek you know it is you who have made these things possible.

1 Peter 4:10
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.



Dear Lord, Thank you for scattering your opportunities before us. Give us eyes to see them, ears to hear of them and a heart to act upon them. Amen.


Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!