Purposed Opportunities.....

Thanksgiving is here....the Holiday Season is upon us and how fast it came!! I can not believe that this year went so fast but it did and here we are, gearing up for the days of eating and fellowship with family and friends. Getting together with others whom we have not seen in a long time and walking town verbal paths of past times and old ways, things we used to do, should have done, and are going to do. As I look over the stories of Holiday cheer and excitement and the concern with the economic situation, something far greater than money concerns me and brings up something in my heart. Family and the lost opportunities that have passed us up to "right" the past or "get over" what once was.

I read an article on CNN.com (yes, I go there every day...20times a day!!lol) and the story was about families and those that are faced with challenges this season and every day before and after. Over 4.5 million people in America alone have the disease, Alzheimer's and deal with loss every day. As I read this story, I began to think about our own losses that we deal with. Imagine for a moment, you have shared your life with a family member or friend. Your whole life, you have spent time with this person, laughing, crying, celebrating, and growing with this individual whom you shared all your thoughts, or most, your dreams, ideas and they shared with you. Your feelings have been hurt and restored by them causing you both to grow even closer through all your experiences together. The love and relationship you share is so great, you count it a blessing to be in their life and they in yours. After many years, 20, 30, 40, 50, plus years of all of this, imagine you walk in to the room to see them again and hang out and they have no idea who you are. Wow. They don't remember any of those times, any of the laughs, tears, or years. They even fear you now because you act like you know them and they have no memory of ever meeting you. Reading this, realizing that our time is not our own rather it is God's and nothing is promised or guaranteed to us, I am reminded about those who we have a chance to speak to and don't, who we have a chance to enjoy and avoid. We get upset when it is too late, but God has given us the chances.

How many times has God presented us with opportunities to right the wrongs of the past and we ignore it, believing we have more time? How many times has God put the person or situation in front of us and we walked around it or turned the other way? We have a bag full of excuses we use to justify. "It wasn't my fault" "they need to apologize to me" "I will get to it eventually, I got time" "why do I always have to be the one to step up" "I don't owe them anything, they owe me" "there is nothing there anyways, what difference would it make" or my two favorites.."I ain't doing it, it ain't me" and "I don't even care either way".

We got the excuses but what we don't realize is we don't have the time we think, and the resolve we can gain is underestimated. We always blame and never except blame. We always put things off, never realizing we are the key. To answer all the excuses and the ones not listed..."Why?" ...because God said so and we all want heaven, the reward, well it comes with work. I remember one of my best friends dad past years ago and he called me on the phone to tell me and asked me to come by. At first I thought he was kidding because we always play jokes on each other and I was concerned because this was a little twisted. I realized he was not kidding and I rushed over. He sat there with a blank look and was angry as oppose to being sad at first. We went to his dad home to start the plans with his brothers and as we walked through the apartment, sadness started to kick in. The anger was because his dad was gone and he couldn't get him back, the sadness came because of the guilt he felt for not talking to his dad in a while and restoring a bruised relationship. I let him know that it's not too late, talk to him now. It may not be the same, and the healing took a while, but the process started there. How many times have we let that chance slip? The guilt, the pain, anger, and sadness we feel for not saying anything. It was the other persons fault until its too late, then it doesn't matter. It should not matter when you have the chance. We said "goodbye" to his dad that day, and entered in to a new way of viewing opportunities God gives us.

This Holiday season, you will at times be reminded of those family members and or friends for which you used the excuse to avoid. You will be confronted with and think about your opportunities that God has given you to resolve what ever it is that caused a separation. Think about those 4.5 million individuals that will never be able to remember, like you can, when things were good with an "old" friend or family member. They will not be able to smile at the good times, realize how they grew during the hard times, and know that God has blessed them with the love that still exist despite it all. Take a moment to pick up the phone, go to their home, interrupt their holiday season to show them that God is able and that you miss them. Show your family and their family that out of all the things that may have happened, no matter how strong the action was, or how great the pain is you felt, Love is still the greater of it all.

If Jesus was like us and felt like He could do what He was sent to do at a later time. Or felt that because others talked about Him, beat Him, and made fun of Him that it was not His problem to solve and decided to wait on us to get it right, where would we be? With Jesus choosing to follow through with His calling and fulfill His purpose, He gave us a chance, an opportunity. What will you do with yours?