Making Ourselves Available
A man was going up to bed, when his wife told him he'd
left the light on in the garden shed - she could see it from
the bedroom window. But he said that he hadn't been in the
shed that day. He looked himself, and there were people in
the shed, stealing things. He rang the police, but they told
him that no one was in his area, so no one was available to
catch the thieves.
He said OK, hung up, counted to 30 and rang the police
again. "Hello. I just rang you a few seconds ago because
there were people in my shed? Well, you don't have to worry
about them now, I've just shot them all."
Within five minutes there were half a dozen police cars in
the area, an Armed Response unit, the works. Of course, they
caught the burglars red-handed. One of the policeman said to
this man: "I thought you said you'd shot them!"
He replied, "I thought you said there was no one available!"
The same thing happens frequently in my life. Someone asks
me to do something and I respond, "I don't have the time."
Often, what I mean by that is, "I don't regard this as
important enough." The truth is, we find (or make) the time
to do whatever we regard to be important.
Someone has said you can tell a person's priorities by
looking at his checkbook. There is a great deal of validity
to that. We are willing to spend money on the things we
think are important. But perhaps a greater indicator of our
priorities would be our planning books -- a record of how
our time is spent.
For all of us, choices must be made. We don't have time to
do everything, so we must choose those things which are of
greatest importance to us. Just be careful that your choices
are those things which are also most important to God. The
greatest men and women in the Bible were not those with the
greatest resources or talents, but they were men and women
who made themselves available to be used by God whenever He
called. May God never hear us say, "Sorry, but I'm not
available!"
"Be very careful, then, how you live -- not as unwise but as
wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days
are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what
the Lord's will is." (Eph. 5:15-17, NIV)
Have a great day!
Alan Smith
alansmith@boone.net
www.TFTD-online.com