Missed Opportunities

samsclub

On Friday morning at 8:30, I found myself heading for Sam’s Club to pick up groceries Carla had ordered for us.
As we entered the parking lot, I let out a gasp of frustration as I saw a really long line of people waiting to go into the store. My first thought was to turn around and go home, but we had preordered so that wasn’t an option. I put on my mask and rubber gloves and got in line, all the while wishing I were home.
I finally made it through the line, got my order, loaded it into my car, and headed home. It was on the way home that I realized my focus was on me and what I wanted. I had not thought about the frustration and anxiety others might be going through.
This focus on myself kept me from seeing the needs of others and being a witness for Christ. I had missed an opportunity. God was working all around me in that parking lot, but I couldn’t see Him because I was focused on self.
 Do you ever wonder how many missed opportunities you’ve had to join God in His work? Jesus says in John 5:17: “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working.” And John 5:19 tells us that “…the Son can do only what he sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” If Jesus is our example to follow and He is working around us, we need to recognize where He is working and join Him in His activity as He accomplishes His work through us.
When we become willing vessels that God can use to accomplish His work, then we will experience God at a whole new level and our faith will increase. What’s more, as Matthew 22:37-39 says, we will be closer to fulfilling the first and greatest commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” as well as the second, which is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Terry Freed

Posted in

Elder Terry Freed