Going berserk?

It was Thomas Edison who reminded us, "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." The truth of the matter is that most of us would rather avoid the 'overall days' and just enjoy the 'lounge wear' days! We want the 'good stuff', but we don't want to put in the effort to actually 'get the goods'. Opportunity is when the timing is favorable - the conditions are met. How many times do we allow favorable timing and conditions to just pass us by? I think if we stop to consider that one, we may just say we have allowed opportunity to pass us by way too frequently without paying even the slightest attention to it as it was. Why? We were not 'positioned' to 'pounce'. The cat who sits still, considering the lizard skittering across the wall isn't duped into slumber by the breeze gently bending the tall grass. He is paying attention - positioning himself to pounce. Opportunity will not pass him by! He is ready and willing. Opportunity requires readiness, but it also requires the will within to act when the opportunity comes our way.

Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. Let Your good Spirit lead me on a straight path. (Psalm 143:10)

Why is it that some of us just don't act upon the opportunities that are presented to us? I think it is because we have not determined to grasp them. Our mind says we are, but our heart betrays us because as scripture says it best, "Man's spirit is willing, but the body does not have the power to do it." (Matthew 26:41) Our spirit is willing, but our flesh is weak. Our mind tells us one thing - our body betrays the true intent of our heart. God reminds us that our 'will' needs to be taught - it needs to learn how to respond more reliably, with intent and purpose. This is why he sent his Spirit - to act as a teacher. We don't become ready to pounce until we are in the right position. The cat who is sitting way up in the tree, or on top of the roof, isn't ready to pounce on the lizard at the base of the wall. By the time he pounces, the lizard will have scurried away!

If we want to be ready for opportunity when it comes our way, we need to learn to recognize it. Then we have to learn to be patient. I have been in the right place, but the timing was not correct. There I was, positioned and ready to pounce, but the timing was not right. If you want to know the truth here, I pounced anyway! Why? I was there - the opportunity was in front of me - so I just did it. The outcome was a little different than what God intended, though. The timing is one thing we don't always wait for when we are looking for the opportunity. We are afraid it will pass us by if we aren't quick enough to pounce. Remember this - - - position is the one thing we can control, timing is the one thing God controls. Position yourself and be ready - then wait. Uh-oh, I just made a few of us uncomfortable with that last statement. We don't like to wait - we imagine the opportunity will pass us by if we aren't pouncing all the time. 

A cat who is pouncing all the time, at every opportunity he sees, isn't really accomplishing much. Don't believe me? Watch a cat go berserk over a laser pointer dot traversing the floor or wall! He is absolutely beside himself pursuing that red dot! Do you know what it means to be berserk? It means that the behavior reveals deranged thought - wild, crazed, frenzied actions that really make little to no sense. Anytime we act on impulse rather than thinking things through - observing for the right place and the right time - we are going to act a little 'deranged'. Our actions will really not make a whole lot of sense. Just sayin!