Unexpected opportunities

The COVID-19 shutdown left so many people in despair. It impacted businesses in the community, children and their parents, churches, older adults and a long list of others. Everyone sympathizes with those who have suffered serious physical, financial and emotional hurts.

That being said, the shutdown has in a strange twist given many people a large amount of unexpected free time. How have you been using the unexpected free time? Have you used it to pursue opportunities that you were too busy to go after before the pandemic?

The Bible encourages us to be wise in how we use our time.

“Be careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil,” in Ephesians 5:15-16.

Although there are great differences in the amount of money people possess, when it comes to time, each person is given the exact same number of hours at the beginning of each day. Whereas the wise person takes advantage of the time they are given, the unwise often waste their precious time and opportunities.

There is a very old Arabian proverb that says, “Four things come not back – The spoken word… The spent arrow…The past life…The neglected opportunity.”

There are always opportunities, but they are usually fleeting. The opportunities you have right now may never be there again. It might be that now is the time for you to pursue that dream.

Some exciting opportunities are risky; they require courage from the person who pursues them. As Earl Nightingale reminded us years ago, “Wherever there is danger, there lurks opportunity; whenever there is opportunity, there lurks danger. The two are inseparable; they go together.”

Understanding the risk, Reginald B. Mansell was spot on when he said: “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities. An optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.”

In an unprecedented time in America and a time of great difficulty, it may be that you finally have the time to pursue that project that you’ve put off for years. It might be learning to play an instrument, starting that novel you’ve always planned to write, learning a second language or whatever it is you’ve dreamed of doing some day.

One of the most widely read books in the English language is “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” One of the things that makes the book so extraordinary is that it was written by a preacher named John Bunyan while he was in prison.

Bunyan was arrested in England under the Conventicle Act of 1593, which made it an offence to attend a religious gathering with more than five non-family members at other than at a state-approved church.

The offender could be punished with three months in prison. If he refused to promise not to reoffend, he could be banished or executed. At his trial in 1661, Bunyan refused to agree to give up preaching and eventually served 12 years.

Although it may have appeared a waste of time in prison, Bunyan chose to use his time of isolation to write a masterpiece that continues to inspire generations long after his passing. And his courageous stand for freedom to worship as he pleased without government interference became a dream in the years that followed for many of his countrymen that set out to found a country that would later become the United States of America, where freedom of religion was protected in the First Amendment of its Constitution.