Opportunity

Opportunity 

I am growing some new potatoes in a pink plastic bucket. It lessens the back - breaking digging you see. Also, I keep it in the potting shed; frost free, and bring it out in full view of the sun on bright sunny days. I reckon with the chlorophyll in the leaves, manufacturing plant food from sunlight, it will make those spuds taste even better. On one such day, I noticed that a plump little garden spider had dropped onto the compost, and was running wildly, around and around. This dark, moist, hidey hole that he had found for himself, this dark and secret place had suddenly become a place of threat and vulnerability. Call me daft if you must, but I thought about the futility of its plight: running round without end, the sides too smooth and slippery for him to climb out. I didn't want to pick him up in case I hurt him and with the speed he was going he could have risked losing limbs. I had a brainwave. I put a flimsy strip of paper, one end touching the surface of the soil, and the other end touching the ground. It was not very stiff, and the paper, torsioned and twisted in the middle. Oh well I might just see if anything were to happen to resolve his predicament. Do you know within twenty seconds, I looked back and he had gone! He saw an opportunity and took it. He had climbing skills but, like Superman under the influence of Kryptonite, had lost his powers, in the plastic bucket. No one had taught him how to climb and twist around on top of the twisted part; did he hang upside down?

It made me think about emotions that we do not let to the surface. They stay hidden in a dark place. Would we really want to be free of them? Can we use opportunities to be free? Or maybe some pet problems are stumbling blocks that are so familiar to us like a physical impediment; they could become part of who we are. We may regard them as immovable and unchangeable. It reminds me of the paralysed man who used an opportunity to be healed.

Luke 5: 18 - 20

Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on to the roof  and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith he said 'Friend your sins are forgiven.'

The ill man was immobile. He needed his friends. Jesus saw the faith of the friends; they knew what to do. They were persistent. They loved their friend greatly, and each man had a vibrant, 'take action' faith. Jesus in this instance said ' Friend your sins are forgiven.' He knew the dark secrets, which had disempowered the bed-ridden man. Nevertheless, the man had allowed himself to be vulnerable; and had gone along with what his friends thought was good, he trusted their judgment. Jesus would have been moved by the paralysed man's willingness to be brought forward.

We may have pockets of unforgiveness in our hearts, that remain buried deeper, underneath our day to day concerns. These stumbling blocks can be the most difficult to overcome. Some may be so hidden we have forgotten how they got there. We need friends in good spiritual health: persons who will travel with us, in our faith journey; who can lead us to Jesus in prayer. They will help us to see opportunities and encourage us to take them.

James 1: 19 - 22

My dear brothers, take note of this, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for a man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

God calls us to action: to use the opportunities that He gives us.

James 1: 25

But the man who looks intently into the perfect law, that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does.

Lord Jesus search my heart, my past sins, even those that  I have covered over, and tried to forget; cleanse me from holding on to sins of the past, sins of omission, the things I should have done, sins that have paralysed me from moving forward spiritually. Help me to be aware of  the opportunity to change; to choose freedom in Christ; if I only can trust in Him, and have the desire to move forward, then Lord, I pray that you would meet me in my difficulty, so that I could stand before you upright, honest and free and ready to serve you.  Amen.

If a friend asks you, can I pray with you? What would your answer be? If the Lord asks you to go forward and meet a new challenge, to change where you live, or where you work, or even to give more time listening to Him: How would any of us answer? 

The garden spider ran to freedom from an instinct to survive, borne out of fear. We who know a loving God, we should be moved to change out of love. Opportunities, bring risks, and people of faith run to take them.