Have you ever thought about how many opportunities you miss out on? I'm not talking about opportunities to do something fun and for whatever reason, you didn't do it. Like skydiving or something. I'm not even talking about opportunities to grow. I'm talking about the fact that maybe, just maybe, God puts people in our path that He wants us to just talk to.

And we miss it.

Maybe the clerk at the grocery store just needs someone to acknowledge their existence. A smile and a "How are you doing today?" might be enough. Or maybe a co-worker needs some encouragement. Or maybe a close friend needs someone to dump their junk on...or to be challenged about a dangerous pattern in their life.

FYI, for those of you who are not Christians, I believe this applies to you to. Maybe you don't believe it's God that directs those things, but I think you can relate to the concept of missing out on opportunities to make a difference in someone's life. To make the world a better place.

And for the Christian, how much more of a reason do you have to pay more attention to this concept of missed opportunities? If you really believe all this stuff about God and the hope we have because of Him coming here to save us, then this is not something you can afford to ignore.

This all comes to mind because of a guy we (well, mostly Erin) befriended down at the water one day a couple of years ago. This is a guy who is clearly searching for some hope and direction. We've run into him several times since, have eaten a meal with him, and just got to know him. But we hadn't seen him in quite a while...until this past Monday. We bumped into him at a restaurant. We were so excited to see him! We exchanged numbers and talked little bit, but I realized the next day that I was really rushing through the conversation. People were waiting for us, so I felt this need to make things quick. I can't help but feel like that encounter was more than chance and that he needed more than a "Hey...good to see ya!" But I missed it.

And the worst thing about it is that I had specifically told God that very morning that I wanted to be used by Him that day and would be paying attention.

I wonder how many opportunities I miss in a given week.

Why do we miss it? Mostly because we're not looking. We wake up with "ME" on the mind. We go throughout our day doing all the things we've planned out. When opportunities come our way, we don't even recognize them because we're...busy. Busy doing our thing. Busy with our agenda. The truth is, we have so much going on that we don't feel like we have time to focus on other people. We're not paying attention.

What would the world look like if we stopped being so selfish with our time and our comfort zones, and just had the conversations we need to have? What if all Christians woke up every day and prayed that God would help them recognize the opportunities to make a difference in someone's life, and then spent the day actually doing it?

Maybe, instead of it being such an "inconvenience," it would change someone's life.
And maybe it would change your life too.