The Long Ride
A fellow comes up to a cab driver in New York and says, “Take me to London.” The cab driver tells him there is no possible way for him to drive the cab across the Atlantic. The customer insists there is. “You’ll drive me down to the pier and we’ll put the taxi on a freighter and when we get off at Liverpool, you’ll drive me to London and I’ll pay you whatever is on the meter.” The driver agrees and when they arrive in London, good to his word, the passenger pays the total on the meter and gives him a thousand dollar tip. Now the driver is roaming around London and doesn’t know what to do. A Britisher hails him and says, “I want you to drive me to New York.” The cab driver can’t believe his good luck. How often can you pick up a fare in London who wants to go to New York? The passenger says, “First, we take a boat.” The driver says, “That I know. But where to in New York?” The passenger says, “Riverside Drive and 104th Street.” And the driver responds, “Sorry, I don’t go to the west side.” How about your church? Do you refuse to go to the west side and thereby miss great opportunity?
Wasteful
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity. –Henry David Thoreau
Good Impression
You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.
Life Still Happens
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy planning more important things.
Our Varied Roles
We are all manufacturers in a way—making good, making trouble, or making excuses.
Missed Opportunities
The other day I ran across the story of a man who had a great opportunity that he missed. His friend took him for a ride one day way out in the country. They drove off the main road and drove through groves of trees to a large uninhabited expanse of land. A few horses were grazing, and a couple of old shacks remained. The friend, Walter, stopped the car, got out, and started to describe with great vividness the wonderful things he was going to build. He wanted his friend Arthur to buy some of the land surrounding his project to get in on the ground floor.
But Arthur thought to himself, “Who in the world is going to drive twenty-five miles for this crazy project? The logistics of the venture are staggering.”
And so Walter explained to his friend Arthur, “I can handle the main project myself. But it will take all my money. But the land bordering it, where we’re standing now, will in just a couple of years be jammed with hotels and restaurants and convention halls to accommodate the people who will come to spend their entire vacation here at my park.” He continued, “I want you to have the first chance at this surrounding acreage, because in the next five years it will increase in value several hundred times.”
“What could I say? I knew he was wrong,” Arthur tells the story today. “I knew that he had let this dream get the best of his common sense, so I mumbled something about a tight-money situation and promised that I would look into the whole thing a little later on.”
“Later on will be too late,” Walter cautioned Arthur as they walked back to the car. “You’d better move on it right now.”
And so Art Linkletter turned down the opportunity to buy up all the land that surrounded what was to become Disneyland. His friend Walt Disney tried to talk him into it. But Art though he was crazy.
Labor for the Chance
The reason some people don’t recognize opportunity is because it often comes disguised as hard work.
The Chance for Evangelism
One of the great disasters of history took place in 1271. In 1271 Niccolo and Matteo Polo (the father and uncle of Marco) were visiting the Kubla Khan. Kubla Khan at that time was a world ruler, for he ruled all China, India, and all of the East. He was attracted to the story of Christianity as Niccolo and Matteo told it to him. And he said to them: “You shall go to your high priest and tell him on my behalf to send me a hundred men skilled in your religion and I shall be baptized, and when I am baptized all my barons and great men will be baptized and their subjects will receive baptism, too, and so there will be more Christians here than there are in your parts.” Nothing was done. Nothing was done for about thirty years, and then two or three missionaries were sent. Too few and too late. It baffles the imagination to think what a difference to the world it would have made if in the thirteenth century China had become fully Christian, if in the thirteenth century India had become fully Christian, if in the thirteenth century the East had been given to Christ. In that, we have seen man frustrating God’s purpose in history. –William Barclay
The Last Minute
If it weren’t for the last minute, a lot of things would never get done.
Opportunity Etymology
Our English word “opportunity” comes from the Latin and means “toward the port.” It suggests a ship taking advantage of the wind and tide to arrive safely in the harbor. The brevity of life is a strong argument for making the best use of the opportunities God gives us.
Really Lazy
Mere longing for a better world can be a lazy person’s way to face life. There is an old story of a farmer who said lightning struck an old shed and this saved him the trouble of tearing it down, and rain washed off his car and saved him that chore, too. When asked what he was doing now, he replied, “Waiting for an earthquake to shake the potatoes out of the ground.” –W.A. Poovey
Formula for Success
An ambitious young man asked an experienced salesman for the secret of his success in selling. The salesman said, “There’s no great secret, you just have to jump at every opportunity that comes along.” The young man replied, “But how can I tell when an opportunity is coming?” The salesman responded, “You can’t. You have to keep jumping.”
Dangerous Opportunity
In the language of China there is hardly a more suggestive or challenging word than “crisis.” It is made up of two characters. Each of these is half a word, the first being “danger” and the second “opportunity.” Hence a crisis is literally a dangerous opportunity. –Earle H. Ballou
Timely Opportunities to Do Good
A young man was busy at his job of taking out the groceries for the local supermarket. He had been in and out of the store on his helpful errands a number of times that morning. Something drew his attention to a woman in the parking lot who was struggling with her groceries. Her cart was abundantly filled, as were her arms.
His path back to the store took him in her direction. Like many people, she put one of her packages on the roof of the car while she hunted for her keys and opened the door. Then she began to load her packages from the cart to the car. But as she got in, started up her car and began to drive away, the young man saw that she forgot to retrieve the package on the roof of the car. Now he was closer to the car and he began to run after her. When she made a turn to exit the parking lot, the package on the roof rolled off.
Fortunately, the young man caught the package—a baby—just before it hit the pavement!
Confrontation
We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities. –Pogo
Home Rule
All you need to grow fine, vigorous grass is a crack in your sidewalk.
The Gospel of the Second Chance
On New Year’s Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played University of California in the Rose Bowl. In that game, a man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California. Somehow, he became confused and started running in the wrong direction. One of his teammates, Benny Lom, overtook and downed him sixty-five yards away, just before he scored for the opposing team. When California attempted to punt, Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety, which was the ultimate margin of victory.
That strange play came in the first half, and everyone who was watching the game was asking the same question: “What will Coach Nibbs Price do with Roy Riegels in the second half?” The men filed off the field and went into the dressing room. They say down on the benches and on the floor, all but Riegels. He put his blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, put his face in his hands, and cried like a baby.
If you have played football, you know that a coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during halftime. That day Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. Then the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time. Coach Price looked at the team and said simply, “Men, the same team that played the first half will start the second.”
The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. He did not budge. The coach looked back and called to him. Still he didn’t move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, “Roy, didn’t you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second.”
Then Roy Riegels looked up and his cheeks were wet with a strong man’s tears. “Coach,” he said, “I can’t do it to save my life. I’ve ruined you. I’ve ruined the University of California. I’ve ruined myself. I couldn’t face that crowd in the stadium to save my life.”
Then Coach Price reached out and put his hand on Riegels’ shoulder and said to him: “Roy, get up and go on back; the game is only half over.” And Roy Riegels went back. Those Tech men will tell you they have never seen a man play football as Roy Riegels played that second half.
We take the ball and run in the wrong direction. We stumble and fall and are so ashamed of ourselves that we never want to try again. And God comes to us and bends over us in the person of His Son and says, “Get up and go back; the game is only half over.” That is the gospel of the grace of God. It is the gospel of a second chance, the third chance, and of the hundredth chance.
Perspectives—A Puzzler
During World War II, a general and his aide, a lieutenant, were traveling from one base to another. They were forced to travel with civilians aboard a passenger train. They found their compartment where two other folks were already seated—an attractive young lady and her grandmother. For most of the trip, they conversed freely. The train entered a long and rather dark tunnel. Once inside the tunnel, the passengers in this particular car heard two distinct sounds—the first was the smack of a kiss; the second was the loud sound of a slap.
Now, although these four people were in the same compartment aboard the passenger train, they came to four different perspectives. The young lady thought how glad she was that the young lieutenant got up the courage to kiss her, but she was somewhat disappointed at her grandmother for slapping him for doing it; the general thought to himself how proud he was of his young lieutenant for being enterprising enough to find this opportunity to kiss the attractive young lady but was flabbergasted to think that she slapped him instead of the lieutenant; the grandmother was flabbergasted to think that the young lieutenant would have the gall to kiss her granddaughter, but was proud of her granddaughter for slapping him for doing it; and the young lieutenant was trying to hold back the laughter, for he found the perfect opportunity to kiss an attractive young girl and slap his superior officer all at the same time!