Opportunity, occasion,opportunità ,oportunidad,
"I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one." Mark Twain
We all know by now that every single thing that happens to us is our golden opportunity to turn fear into love, pain into purpose, and despair and grief into destiny.
Yet the more I have these conversations with people today, the more I have become convinced that it's not as easy as the motivational gurus won't you to believe it is. You know the peddlers of the secret...or the intention experts.
Well, heaven help us if it were that easy. Wouldn't that put an end to poverty and pain in the entire world? Wouldn't every man, woman and child have every single thing this world has to offer and then some?
The longer I think on these things, research on these things and encounter them in my own life, with family, friends and self...the more I become convinced that it's none of those things.
It's not a secret, nor can I visualize and intend for it to happen. For isn't that excatly what prayer is? Isn't prayer the mystery of God. Isn't prayer and faith the visualization and intention of our benevolent Father to move mountains, and pour us out a blessing?
Yet, in how many churches on Sunday mornings do poor, poverty stricken, heart broken, faith filled people sit week after week.
So before you condemn me...this is not a condemnation of God. No, on the contrary it's His message to us. It's His Golden Opportunity to show us how He makes our lives work for us.
If you think about how he made manna rain down from heaven, you understand that He presented the children of Israel with a choice. Eat the manna and be filled - don't eat it and starve to death. He also taught them about being good stewards over what He had given them...don't take more than you need and eat all of what you have been given, and don't worry about tomorrow because I'll take care of that too.
Yet, somewhere in our busy, material filled lives we lost His message about choice. We forgot that if and when we fall, it's our choice to stay down. We forgot that if someone hurt us badly, it's our choice to keep looking back at the past and allowing it to hurt us over and over again (for the future can't hurt you and your present won't hurt you unless you make a wrong choice).
Yes, we forgot that it's our choice to be bitter rather than better, racist rather than embracing, gossipy rather than generous, bitchy rather than thoughtful, poor rather than powerful, to live beyond our means or live within our means, to follow rather than lead, to choose illiteracy over education, to blame others for our failures rather than taking responsibility for ourselves, to hate rather than to love.
Today, know this to be true...God's golden opportunity for us today and everyday is to remember that life is a choice. A good life is an even better choice - when we're not comparing it to our neighbor, trying to keep up with the Jones, the Smiths and everybody else on the block, the golden opportunity is presented to us every morning like manna being rained down from heaven. It's our choice to accept the manna - or complain and go without.
Have a great day!
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