Wasted opportunities

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. - Revelation 3:20

I don't know about you guys, but I've missed a number of opportunities in my life, many of which I regret even today, has it been out of fear, shyness, personal pride, wrong timing, or some other cause that was directly under my control.

Yes, because it's no use crying over spilled milk over things that ran out of our control, so, if I missed alleged opportunities because of a third party, what can I do, but if I lost because of something stupid I did, or because I was lazy, for instance, I cannot blame anyone other than me.

I remember when I was still starting my undergraduate studies in computer science, back in 1998, or a year, maybe a year and a half before there was websites that do price comparison among the, at the time, incipient computer stores websites that were still a novelty on the Internet here in Brazil, such as our version of Bizrate or Nextag (here Buscapé and Bondfaro), a colleague of mine and I did a partially operational prototype of a search engine that did price comparison in several virtual stores that ran back then for a project of an academic discipline, that received plenty of compliments by our professor because it was innovative and because of it's overall quality. 

However, the project remained that way, only a prototype that never aired, never became a product.

A little while later these two websites starred here, and I even made a comment with this fellow student about our work and how they were very like the idea we had had, but we also did nothing about it and it stayed that way.

A few years later, one of those websites was sold by some million dollars, and my opportunity of becoming wealthy stayed as a mere recollection.

We all miss opportunities in our lives, that's an unfortunate fact of which we have nothing to be proud of, and even if we struggle really hard against it, one way or the other we may be victims of "fate", of ourselves if we are really honest.

I remember at least a couple times I had a crush on some girl back at college, and that person on me, at the same time, and, however, nothing actually happened between us, and only much later on, when we both felt nothing about one another, was that when we came to know what happened, and we had nothing else to do but to pity it.

That not to say about the times that I had a crush on someone and the person nothing, and voila, sometime later I found myself on the opposite corner, that person had a crush on me and I felt nothing.

I use to say that we're all gifted with opportunities, some people more than others, some better, some worse, and sometimes it comes to us the opportunity of a lifetime, in whatever way possible, and we're better be prepared for it, eyes and ears wide open to identify it as such, grab that opportunity and not let go of it, so that we do not regret it later and for the rest of our lives.

Regarding opportunities, one of the things that causes me surprise, astonishment and even sadness, is how people waste the opportunities of a relationship with God.

That's right, because it doesn't really matter if it's within or outside a religious environment, sometimes we take Jesus' sacrifice for granted by saying "not now, maybe later", we don't want a commitment, nothing serious, we think that God is someone who's gonna spoil our fun and that we don't wanna "miss our youth", as if enjoying a relationship with our Father meant missing on something instead of winning, actually.

We kinda take that opportunity as forever, as if the door was to remain always open for us to have this relationship with God, forgetting ourselves that if Christ knocks on our door waiting for us to open it, his huge patience may one day come to an end, as it is written on the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) in which the ones that did not answer because they were not ready, and because they did not recognize the relevance, the importance of that opportunity, ended up staying outside of the wedding party, all alone, crying in the dark.

Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. - Isaiah 55:6

God offers us today the opportunity of our lives, opportunity to come back from wherever we are towards his arms of love, to receive his forgiveness, his comfort, his friendship.

Are we wasting that opportunity also?

Let's not be caught by surprise, nor unprepared, or as Scripture says on the book of Hebrew, if we will hear his voice today let's not harden our hearts as it was at the time of the Pharaoh of Egypt and of the people who walked in the desert, on the contrary, let's open that door with diligence and ask Jesus in to have supper with us, and to sit at the main spot at the table, in a way that we can listen to Him speaking in a very personal, intimate way to our heart.

My prayer today, based on everything above, is that we may seize every good opportunity life, God, gives us every day, of which the most important is a relationship of intimacy with Him by his son Jesus.

God bless.