This past week I think God has opened my eyes to the opportunities that are all around me everyday.
On Sunday night I was at a restaurant and got talking to the waiter. He heard my “Arkansas’ accent and soon came to the conclusion that because I was British I must like punk rock! Every time he came to the table he would mention about different British bands he liked. Being the punk rock expert I am I wasn’t very surprised that I hadn’t heard of the bands. Before we left he gave me a note with a list of British bands that are coming to the Baltimore area soon.
On Tuesday afternoon a deaf homeless man walked into our offices looking for some financial assistance. He was living in his car and was struggling to find work. We have a benevolence process at the church that takes about a week. I went through my usual talk of filling out the application form. However, I looked at that guy and thought he is in need right now and doesn’t need another process to go through! So I got in his car, drove with him to the gas station, filled his car and bought him lunch.
Last night, my wife and I went to some timeshare/vacation package presentation (the promise of two round trip airline tickets was enough to get us there). As with all these presentations they tried to put the hard sell on us, giving us a ‘great deal’ only for us to say a polite no. It seemed like everyone who worked for this company tried to sell us the package. They even brought the Regional Manager in to give us the hard sell. Normally I would have got angry, but not last night. We wanted to talk to these guys, not about vacations but just about life, and we did. It turned out that two of these guys lived interesting lives that were full of material things, but I just got the feeling they were searching for much more.
Your probably thinking why are you telling me about this and where were the opportunities? The reason I wanted to blog about it is because in each of these situations I felt God say, reach out to them right where they are at. The waiter was into punk rock, reach out to him through punk rock. The homeless man was broke and hungry, reach out to him through feeding him. The hard core sales men were all about business and the good things in life so reach out to them through the good experiences I have been through in my life.
After these three encounters I heard something in my very soul whisper, ‘how many other opportunities have you passed by without reaching out‘. How many waiters have I got annoyed at for talking too much? How many homeless people have I walked over? How many sales men have I tried to run away from as fast as possible? The answers to these questions is, too many!
We get opportunities everyday to reach out to people in need. To meet people right where they are at and just maybe have the opportunity to show them the very light of Christ that lives within you!
What opportunities are you willing to take today?
