Make the Most

I have one simple motto in life, and it is this: There is not better day to bring your blog back from oblivion and irrelevance than today.

It's been a while since I've written anything, and for that, I apologize. Or, if you really hate my writing, I guess I apologize for kicking it back up. Of course, if you hate it that bad, you probably stopped reading after the first line, so there's no need for me to apologize to you since you didn't get this far. In fact, I can insult you and harass you now, and you would never know it. You suck, man. I hope you walk out to your driveway tomorrow to discover you have a mysteriously flat tire. Next time you go to Chick-fil-A, I hope they're all out of polynesian sauce. So there.

Normally after taking a hiatus from the blog, I come back with some excuse about why I didn't write. But this time, I don't really have one. I was just lazy and apathetic, and rewatching episodes of The Office online for the upteenth time felt like a better use of my time. But I'm glad to be back here with you, even though this may be the most anonymous and impersonal way to communicate. In any case, we're tight, right? Good.

Not long ago I was telling a group of people one of my favorite stories to tell. I won't recount the story here, because it's much better in person, and I may have very well included it in a blog post before. All I'll say here is that it involves Starbucks and a word-vomit that set my life on a path that led to me eating eating frozen pizza alone in my apartment two different nights this week. Anyways, telling the story caused me to think of how frustrating it can be to live with memories of missed opportunities, and that in turn made me think of the words of the apostle Paul in Colossians 4:2-6:

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

The passage urges the reader to make the most of every opportunity. This is of course built on the assumption that there are opportunities in the believer's life to serve God in some way. The reason that many Christians do not bear the type of fruit that they probably should is not for lack of opportunity. It's because too many of us fail to recognize and take advantage of the opportunities when they come. The more I think about it, the more I believe that every person is presented with opportunities to magnify Christ and to love and serve others, probably every day.

What I find especially interesting about this idea in Colossians is that, when Paul is writing this, he is sitting in a Roman prison. He reminds the Colossians of this fact by throwing in the comment that he is in chains for the gospel. Now I've never been in prison, but I would imagine that most would assume incarceration would limit one's opportunities to minister to the gospel. But Paul didn't see it that way. He understood that no matter what situation he was in, God could present him with opportunities to share the gospel, so he wanted to make the most of these opportunities by declaring the message boldly. In Philippians 1:12-14, he explains how his time in prison had served to advance the gospel. For Paul, prison walls couldn't contain the gospel and could not extinguish God-given opportunities for service and ministry.

I think that many Christians might feel as though they have no true opportunities to serve God, and this may be for a number of reasons. A person might feel that their situation, giftedness, relationships, location, job, schedule, or whatever else limits or even removes all such opportunities. But Paul understood that God can use his people regardless of what situation they might find themselves in, and the duty of the believer is to be on the lookout for these God-given opportunities and then to boldly make good use of them.

That may be why prayer is so strongly emphasized in this Colossians passage. In order to make the most of every opportunity, we need to see our days the way that God sees them. Such vision comes from prayer--from taking time to align yourself with the will and mindset of God. Prayer is more than present God with a list of requests; it is a chance to come before him and say, "God, help me to see things as you see them. Give me your vision. Allow me to perceive the opportunities that you set before me today, and grant me the boldness and the courage to act when I see what you would have me do."

My encouragement, then, would be to begin each day with a prayer like that. In Crazy Love, Francis Chan points out that many people talk about discovering God's purpose for their lives, but that perhaps a more helpful exercise would be to seek God's purpose for your day. The opportunities are there. The only question is what we'll do with them.

And by the way, they do have more than coffee at Starbucks.