Abundant Opportunity

That title sounds like a good one, doesn't it?  Kinda makes your heart leap with excitement for some treasure awaiting, money to be earned, advancement to be gained, or job to be won. 

Think again.  I'm not talking at all about those sorts of opportunities.  My mind is set on stress today.  Not just my own. 

I have had letters from others going through stresses, pains, challenges and the hard times this earthly life offers in spades.  A friend ust lost a child, another lost health insurance and needs it, another wants to move forward in her single life, but her children are not understanding the transitions of such a move.  Multiple folks I know are battling cancer, marital discord, sick children, job loss, home foreclosure, and financial loss at exorbitant amounts.  There is no end to the stress that hovers over the globe.  Personally, locally and globally.

So, abundant opportunity.

To tell you the truth, sometimes I get so sick of stress, I have absolutely NOOOO desire to see it as an opportunity.  I just want to rant and rave a bit, maybe yell a few strings of powerful words...like 'Bugger', or some such verbal angst...I want to chew up my stress and spit it out.  Situations that are tough suck.  There is just no feminine way to express it.  I could say they  'vacuum', since vacuums suck. 

Nope, they suck.  They are tiresome, wearisome, burdensome and cumbersome. And some more of that, too.

Yeah, I just said that.  So, the word 'some' felt good at the moment.

I'm getting sarcastic now, which shows you where my  mind is today.  NOT in the opportunity mode, that is for sure.

But, Scripture speaks to me that as I think, so will I be.  That a transformed life comes from a renewed mind.  Hmmmmm....what's it called? 'Stinkin' Thinkin'!!!!

Abundant opportunity does exist in the stresses - my own and the kind I know my friends are facing today.  A dear friend went to awaken a child from what she thought was sleep, and found her daughter unresponsive. Now, that mom is in an emergency room with her daughter.  What opportunity exists there?  Prayer, trust, complete humility before God, receiving love from others. 

Another dear gal I know is wrestling with singlehood.  It can be fantastic, freeing, delightful. But, it also brings loneliness, exclusion from certain activities, aging alone, no children, constant comments and gossip from overly concerned onlookers who are sure you need a man or a woman.  The desire to just hide can be powerful in such situations...or stay out of the public eye. You don't want to go to church functions, the grocery store, Christmas plays.  And heaven forbid that you go to something of a 'dating' nature, like a movie, a play, a concert, or a fine restaurant.  What?  No Date????!!!  It strains at credulity, it does.

And it's painful.  What opportunity awaits there?  Trust, tears before the Lord, complete humility, knowing God like others do not because He is all you have, making friends of the sort married people cannot enjoy, freedom to serve and enrich your life with activities of your choosing or God's leading.

Cancer...what could possibly be opportunistic about that!!!??  Even the word is stressful and causes blood pressure to rise.  But, I've watched some really grace filled men and women bring absolute glory to God as they declare Him to be there strength in the war against cancer.  They have long extended prayer time as they take chemo; they write notes and cards for others; they can do nothing, but trust, because fretting does not one lick of good.  Not one.  One opportunity given is the chance to set all relationships straight.  A friend who had brain cancer made sure every word he wanted said was said, every apology made, and every relationship brought to right.  He knew death was coming as a certain visitor, so he acted on the opportunity to leave this world with all his relationships right before God.

I'm sitting here wondering how God wants me to be opportunity minded in my stress.  No one is dying at my house.  Giving thanks for such circumstances should be a response I have to that thought.  But, even more, in all the stress and confusion over finances, house selling, where to move, looking for higher paying work, etc. etc. etc. etc...I want to focus on how much my Father in heaven loves me.  I know for certain that the walk of faith is being forged into my limbs.  My feeble legs are being strengthened. 

Over the past few years of legal battles, marital loss, relationship changes, financial hassles, slander to my name, single parenting, homeschooling, et al. I have been weary beyond description.  Collapse has felt possible on more than a few occasions.  Yet, if I look at myself now and then take a gander back a few years, I can see very clearly that I was opportunity minded. God has been doing great things in me; strengthening my spirit, my faith and my hope.  He has filled me with such a love for others, I can't believe it.  Even when I was not aware of the abundance occuring in me, God was doing it.

Give yourself a break. Take a look at your stresses, try to see them as opportunities, but DO NOT go into I should, I should, I should mode.  Pretty soon,  you'll should all over yourself.  No...let God do the work of the abundance in you that will be a product of being still before Him in stress.

I have a tattoo on my shoulder with the numbers: 46:10. It is a constant reminder to Be Still and Know that God is God.  Those numbers rest inside a crescent moon which has a sun inside its curve. It is meant to show the reflection of the sun in the moon.  On a walk one day, when the moon shone in front of me, and the sun was bright behind me, I realized the moon is vital but gets all its glory and light as it reflects the light of the sun.  Well, guess what God said to me that day!!

"Gayle, your job is to reflect my son.  You are vital. The things happening in your life are vital.  But, unless you let me be your strength and glory, all those things will be futile.  Don't waste any moments of stress or joy.  Let them be mine to fill you with abundance and let my 'light' be reflected in you."

Father, you are always amazing..and always abundant towards me.

I love you.