There’s an old Latin phrase that translates Seize the Day. The business book we are looking at, talks about being ready for and seizing an opportunity before you. Many times in life we have opportunities; pretty much some every day, hence the saying. Some days we are preoccupied and miss opportunities; sometimes we are thinking small and miss opportunities that involve a lot of effort. In the business framework of the discussion, the idea is to be ready for opportunities, to look for them, to have ideas about how to exploit opportunities, and to jump on them with everything you have when they show up.
On of the many mysteries in life is how people stumble across opportunities and through what seems luck end up with changed lives. They get the better job offers, the better scholarships, the better dates, the better churches, the cancer, the layoff, the speeding ticket, the lack of education, the lack of health care, etc. Luck cuts both ways. Some events like speeding tickets are the result of something specific and others seem totally random like kids with cancer. As we learn in Job, the concept of everything will go great if you are good enough is false. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.
Back in February, Apple announced that events in China were going to impact their productivity in the coming months. For a novice investor like me, I knew it meant something, but I didn’t know what. The stock market was going great and the pandemic was something happening over there. For the prepared investor, it was a signal the world was changing and the stock market was going to have a huge negative reaction once everyone figured it out. Many people slowly got out of the stock market and had cash available. Once the world figured it out, the stock market tanked and the sideline investor pulled out. Once this happened, it was time again to enter the market. You had to have cash from getting out to get back in, but some had it. The part I never figured out was what signaled the time to get back in. The people who did the worst got out at the bottom and got back in at the next peak. The people who did nothing like me, didn’t lose too much based on the diversity of their investments. A few got out, got back in, and made a killing. Warren Buffet was not one of these. The investing world wonders is Warren is too old to be the brilliant investor they once thought he was.
The one opportunity we all will be eternally grateful for not passing up is the chance to accept Jesus as our Savior. We know some people never hear about Jesus, but we know some people who hear about Him over and over and over and will never accept. Once we have accepted Christ, the daily devotional I read today talks about a cycle of faith and obedience. Each day offers chances to do things on faith and to do things based on obedience. We are commanded to pray, to love others, and we obey by praying and taking opportunities to positively impact others. We are faithful by praying for and loving our enemies.
One of the points of today’s rule is that sometimes, the opportunity before us is not for us. Maybe everyone around us is commenting on some political topic at hand. Maybe today is not our day to do so. Maybe we can give money to a cause, but maybe we need to save it for a better cause tomorrow. Maybe we can participate in an activity today, but maybe we can wait until we understand the fallout. If “they” say you must do “this” or you are a “whatever”, then maybe “they” are not the entity to make that call.
God calls us to have faith in Him and to obey Him. Sometimes society defines what is right and it matches up with what God says. Sometimes, society defines what is acceptable as everything God is against. Each moment brings some kind of opportunity. Some are life changing, some are positive, some are popular, some are easy. Your choice should come down to what opportunity has God called you to? Does it take an act of faith, an act of obedience, or both? Society does not have the authority to call wrong right. You do not have the authority to call wrong right. God defines what is right, society decides what it thinks, and you decide who you follow. Seize the opportunity if God places it before you, otherwise reject it. Obedient faith is what we are called to.