opportunity

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Don’t Waste What You Really Want

There’s an old saying, “waste not, want not”. Well, sometimes we waste what we want or waste an opportunity that comes along. 

Don't waste what you really want

I was with a friend recently who is going through the process of looking for a new home. He told me he had seen a place that had everything he needed, but because he didn’t jump on it soon enough, he didn’t get it. 

I know it still bugs him because he talks about that place like the one that got away. He probably looks back on it like a wasted opportunity.

We have all wasted something we really wanted. 

… Like that ice cream cone that you were three licks into when it dropped on the ground. 

You were so into that cone that you used about 30 more pounds of press with your tongue when you took the next lick. And that did it. The ice cream toppled right off the cone like someone had put little tiny explosive charges around it and then hit the detonator. 

Boom! You are left looking down longingly at the scoops of ice cream covered in grit and sand. 

What a waste. 

The other week I told you that I’m a bread maker now. I baked my first loaf of bread and it turned out amazing (read about it here). The bread was great tasting, but I don’t eat bread every day. 

I have a regular breakfast routine Tuesday to Friday and it includes a half a grapefruit and a small bowl of hot oat bran cereal. It’s a pretty boring meal. 

But on the weekends, I treat myself. A half a grapefruit is still on the menu but, instead of the oat bran, I have toast. I usually have one piece with just butter on it and a second piece with peanut butter on it.  

I really look forward to those breakfast meals on Saturday and Monday mornings. Sunday I have my regular weekday breakfast – just a throwback to when I was pastoring.

I had made that first loaf of bread Saturday morning and I was pumped – not because of the breakfast but because I’d made the bread myself. 

On Monday I had toast again. It was all good. Then I went back to my regular weekday breakfast and forgot about the bread I’d made. 

It sat Tuesday through Thursday in the bread container on the counter. On Friday Lily looked at the bread and noticed it had lots of mould on it. 

Just as I was getting to the weekend to have bread again, it was no longer good. 

I had wasted what I wanted. 

Monday I should have sliced the rest of that loaf up and put it in the freezer. Through my neglect, what I wanted so much I had actually wasted. 

I guess a new loaf is in order for this weekend.

Here’s the thing: No matter who we are, we all want peace and hope and love. We look for these three things in many places. We look for peace, hope and love in people, in things and in experiences. Sometimes it works out and we get one or more for a time. But a guaranteed place to find them is in God. God offers us peace, hope and love through Jesus Christ His Son. Don’t waste the opportunity to get hold of what you really want. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Where do you usually turn to find peace, hope and love? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Don’t Miss The Window Of Opportunity

The other day we missed the window of opportunity and it created a whole new scenario for us for the next five hours.

We actually had two chances to make it through a winter window before our travel plans were severely hindered … but we got caught in a winter storm and it wasn’t even winter yet. 

The middle of November is not usually snow weather, but we can get some weak, wet flurries that might stick to the grass but not usually to the roads. 

This time it did.

My wife, Lily, and I were leaving the Muskokas after a conference. Though there was snow on the ground, the roads were clear and it hadn’t snowed up north in several days. 

As we drove south to Toronto, and the landscape changed from white to green, I thought how nice it was to have the grass in view again. 

But I was too hasty. 

We stopped at an outlet mall to buy me a pair of shoes, which proved to take longer than we had originally thought. 

That was where we missed our first window. If we had just driven straight home, I think we would have beaten the snow storm all together.

But sometimes you don’t have the foresight you need for the situation.

I remember listening to a pastor talk about visiting an elderly woman in his church, way back in the 50’s.  

He said she had fed him coffee and a piece of pie. Unfortunately the pie was rancid and there was no way he could force that pie down his throat. 

He looked around for a way to dispose of the pie without the woman noticing. He was sitting by a window that was open at the time, and he thought it would be the perfect solution.

The pastor waited for the woman to go back into the kitchen and, as soon as she did, he threw the pie out the window. 

Unfortunately, he hadn’t noticed that there was a screen in the window. 

You could say he missed the window on that occasion! … and I would have loved to have heard his explanation. 

The first thing you want to do is make sure there is an open window. 

In our case, we never checked to see if we needed to take the window of opportunity and get out of Dodge to dodge the storm. Instead we decided to meet our daughter for dinner. 

That was the second window we missed. 

If we had have gone straight home after the outlet mall, we might have been mildly delayed by the storm. But when we committed to having dinner with Karlie, there didn’t seem to be any reason not to stay a little longer in Toronto.

Well, we missed the second window and as dinner went on I kept looking outside at the snow that had started falling and thinking, “We really blew it. We should have taken those windows.” 

As a result of missing them, it was one long, slow and treacherous three plus hours drive home.

Here’s the thing: There are many windows in life that we can either take or miss. Three important windows not to miss are: taking Christ up on His gift of salvation – none of us knows when that window for us will close; taking the way out when temptation urges us to sin; and forgiving quickly because it just gets harder to do it later. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What window of opportunity do you need to act on right now? Leave your comments below.

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The Danger Of Going Down Rabbit Trails

Yesterday, as I wrote my sermon, I kept going off on rabbit trails … putting aside the main thing I was working on to focus on some tangent, or supplementary topic.

spring-peter-cottontail-rabbit-bunny-trail

It happened quite naturally. In writing my sermon, I came to a place where I needed an illustration. As I got an idea, I started to research it in order to be able to use it in my sermon.

The problem was I got hooked on my research and about a half hour later found myself still working on finding out more about the subject of my illustration, instead of my sermon.

I felt like my brother’s dog, Chopper. He’s an adorable looking – in an ugly kind of way – Old English bulldog. … I guess what I’m trying to say is he makes you smile when you look at him.

He’s not the most active dog, though he can be. Most of his day he spends lying down, taking lots of naps, and just hanging out.

But if you say, “chippy”, he leaps from whatever he’s doing (usually laying down pretending to watch television), and he’s off, ready to case down some imaginary, furry little rodent, in the other room, in the back yard, wherever.

Well, that’s what I was like with this illustration, and the thing was I didn’t just do it once, but several times.

I kept catching myself getting lost in some story or detail that was way more than what I needed for my sermon.

It made for a long day of writing. I would write a little and then investigate something that I could relate back to my sermon but that in no way would get me closer to finishing my sermon.

I’m sure most people can not relate, but likely everyone, at some time or other, has had those moments when they got lost in doing something while they were supposed to be doing something else.

In the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator, the ENFP personalities are a little like that. Their prayer goes, “God, help me keep my mind on one th… LOOK, A BIRD! …ing at a time.

That’s not my personality type but I could own that prayer … at least yesterday I could.

Normally, if I struggle writing my sermon, I eventually get a little frustrated. The funny thing was this time I didn’t. I guess it was because I was discovering new things and I was fascinated by them.

There was a part of me that wanted to finish writing but another part of me that wanted to soak in other stories and interesting anecdotes.

I did finally finish writing, and it’s a good thing too because, though it was Friday, Sunday was coming.

Here’s the thing: Life can take us down various rabbit trails. Sometimes those trails have to do with hurts or opportunities. They can take our focus and interest for a long time, even years. But they prevent us from getting back to the main thing. And there is a deadline to that main thing; we just don’t know when it is. Be sure your sins are forgiven and that Christ is functioning as your Lord – that’s the main thing. Everything else is just a rabbit trail.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has been a long rabbit trail for you? Leave your comment below.