Opportunity

This Sunday, I'm preaching about opportunity - praying for it and making the most of it.  We're finishing up a series of sermons on the newly adopted vision of Mt. Bethel: "to be a spiritually alive church, sharing Christ's love through service to the community." 

Paul, in concluding his letter to the Colossian church, gives his usual instruction to pray for him and his associates, but he includes some additional instructions specific to this church:  "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity" (Colossians 4:5).  Note that he doesn't say to take advantage of the opportunities that fall into your lap or the ones that are convenient - Paul says to take advantage of every opportunity. 

Wouldn't it be great if opportunity presented itself like this?

The truth is that many of us hope and pray for a better world, but rarely pray for opportunity (outside of selfish opportunity) and sometimes we avoid opportunity for the stress or work involved. 

There's a story about a potato farmer that had a shed that needed to be torn down.  Lightning struck the shed and it fell apart and burned up, saving him the work.  At the same time, the rain came down and washed his car and watered his fields.  When asked what he was going to do next, he replied, "I'm waiting for an earthquake to shake the potatoes out of the ground."

Sadly, this is how many of us live our spirital lives.  We'll do what is convenient or what doesn't risk too much of ourselves.  Sadly, for many churches, this is why vision never makes it past the paper stage.  The document looks great and it seems inspiring, but then it collects dust and in a couple of years, people forget it.  Pastors expect laypeople to be inspired and motivated and laypeople expect the pastor they pay to make everything happen.  And so time keeps moving and nothing else does.

God wants to do amazing things through each of us and each of our churches.  Are you praying for opportunity like Nehemiah did?  Are you expectant that God will part seas like he did for Moses? Or that he will present and Ethiopian Eunich reading Isaiah like he did for Phillip? 

Basic wisdom says that we see what we're looking for and miss what we aren't paying attention to.  Do your prayers and plans put you in position to catch the opportunity thrown your way? 

I think we can all look back and name several missed opportunities.  We all had the opportunity to purchase stock in Microsoft or Home Depot before they made it big, but only few did.  We all have the opportunity to make a difference in the Kingdom of God, but few of us do.  The question is, when you look back a year from now, will there still be just as many missed opportunities in your wake, or will you have lived on the edge and taken some risks?

"The reason some people don't recognize opportunity is because it often comes disguised as hard work." -Anonymous