MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

Reference text: Luke 14:15-24

In our reference text, a window of entry was opened, an opportunity which the invited guests declined using very valid excuses: to take ownership of a new field, verifying the strength of oxen and spending time with a new wife. (vs 18-20).

Once their seemingly valid excuses were relayed to the banquet host, the servants were given another instruction ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame’(Luke 14:21b). In other words, bring along those who they think were undeserving, I am inviting them now, and compel them to attend. So that even if those initially invited later changed their minds, the banquet hall would already be full (vs 23)

Note: the host only requested his invited guests to come once- “come, everything is now ready”(vs 17). There were no repeat invitations, no negotiations, no compulsion, and no forcing.

There are some encounters, whether supernatural or natural, that will happen only once in your lifetime. Some doors that will open only once, some things you get to say only once, and men you get to meet only once. In effect, there are some opportunities that will come once in your lifetime, no second knocks. Not because you don’t deserve a second chance, but because that is how they are programmed to be.

You therefore have to be discerning: with your eyes wide open, ears fastened and listening because while you have the liberty to skip opportunities, you have to be ready to also bear the consequences that follow your choices. And also, don’t be disappointed when those same opportunities are offered to another who grabs them with both hands.

#sly