I Missed An Opportunity

Fishers of People

I’m a bit aggravated and embarrassed with myself.  I missed an opportunity to share the most important thing in my life, with someone else.

As most of you know, discovering God’s will for me is one of the “resolutions” that I have made for this year.  Achieving that resolution requires that I try daily to be more like Jesus than I was  the day before.  I may have already shared that with you as well.

It is an extremely difficult task that I have set before myself.  Trying to think and be like Jesus in every circumstance is requiring constant thought, preparedness, and patience.  I am no where near where I should be.

I understand that I am NOT going to be able to be that 100% of the time.  It’s an impossible goal to reach.  When I do something like what I’ve done today though, I really question everything I think I am.

So, I guess you probably want to hear what’s gotten us into this thought?  Well, not to worry.  I’m going to share it with you.

I was working on-site for a customer today.  I worked about 5 hours last night swapping out an old server for a new one.  Pretty big task as they only had one domain controller.  We wanted the new server to have the same name and IP address as the old one.  What am I doing?  Sorry, rambled a bit there.  Has absolutely nothing to do with the story.  The job went off great.

Anyway, back to the main point.  We were trying to decide when to physically move the old server and install the new.  We came up with Sunday as the best day to do it as they are not open on Sundays.

Now, what time?  The customer made the statement that Sunday morning is a better time for him.  He then proceeded to say, “You don’t….do you go to church on Sunday?”

It then starts.

I couldn’t see my expression, but I could feel it.  But it was a bit late to change it.  I’m sure it was a look of disgust or a look of “I’m sorry, but yeah…I do.” At the same time I was nodding my head.

“You do,” he said.  Not a question, but a statement.

“Yeah,”  I said,  “I have to.”

“Daddy jerk a knot on your head if you don’t?” he asked.

“Naw,” I said, “I just have to go.”

“Well, good,” he said.

That was it.  “I have to”???? really?  That’s the answer that I had?

Why did I tell him that I have to?  Why couldn’t I have said “Yep.  Going to church is a privilege that I have.  Plus it really makes God happy when I’m there.”

No sharing the good news? No telling him that God keeps me sober and if I turn from him I could go back?  No telling him that God is most important in my life?

Not an expression that Jesus would have had.  Not a single word that I said would have came from the mouth of Jesus had he been put in the same situation.

Now that I think about it, maybe I didn’t miss an opportunity after all.  Maybe I just plain blew it.

I hope I’ve learned something  from this.  I’m not going to beat myself up over it.  I think it’s the striving to be like Jesus that matters the most.

Have you missed any opportunities?  Maybe not “churchy” opportunities, but some that cause you to get aggravated with yourself?  Why do we do that?

Because of HIM

SC

There is an Update to this post.