SEIZE THE MOMENT!

Be careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don’t be fools; be wise: make the most of every opportunity you have for doing good. Ephesians 5:15-16 (TLB)

Everyone has a dream, but most dreams never come true. It’s not that we aren’t smart enough, or outgoing enough, or even spiritual enough. Usually, our dreams don’t come true because we’re unwilling to take the necessary risks to reach them. The Bible shares a sad one-sentence commentary about a king who failed to achieve an important ambition in his life: King Jehoshaphat built a fleet of trading ships to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail—they were wrecked at Ezion Geber (1 Kings 22:48). While it’s a tragedy for your ship to never come in, it’s a greater tragedy to build a ship and never set sail. Imagine the energy and money expended by King Jehoshaphat. He built an entire fleet of ships to go after the gold, but not one of them set sail. Evidently a storm came up while they were in the harbor, and slammed the ships against the rocks. They were all destroyed. Some people spend their whole lives waiting for their ship to come. But God isn’t waiting for any ships. God is waiting for you—to sail your ship out of the harbor. Perhaps you know someone who talked for 20, 30 or more years about a dream, but she never took the risk to do anything about it. He never got his ship out of the harbor. Eventually, the person dies—and so does the dream. The Bible’s antidote to that kind of tragic procrastination is as simple as an overdone catchphrase but excruciatingly difficult to apply at times: Just do it! God warns us: Be careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don’t be fools; be wise: make the most of every opportunity you have for doing good. God wants us to seize the moment and act now. To live a life of unfulfilled dreams is a tragedy. Ships aren’t made for the harbor. Whitewater rafts aren’t made for the back of a pickup. They’re made to set sail. They’re made to launch. Are you ready to launch your ship?