For almost four years, I have seen and walked by an office tower that has been virtually empty. Yes, there are two security guards who sit downstairs, but the lobby is always empty except for the rare occasion when a person is walking through on inspection. Given the investment in the building, it is hard to believe it will sit idle and empty forever. Yet the question of when someone, anyone will engage is one I frequently revisit as I walk by and wonder.
For more time than I care to remember, there have been opportunities where I could act and yet, I left them where I found them. The memory of the same individual who has cross my path as I walked home three times, each time asking me for a bit of money for food, haunts me. After the first encounter, I purposely carried small notes so I could respond. On two occasions which followed, my fear and stress blinded me to the opportunity to engage.
As I consider the opportunities today represents, I wonder what it will take to engage. With my eye on the author and the choices he will make today, I am leaving myself with the following life insights.
Every opportunity is unique and has a shelf life. It may repeat but it will be different next time. The call to action with each is always the same. “So, roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives.” (1 Peter 1.13)
More investment in being equipped and prepared may not make one anymore “ready” to engage than one is right now. Metaphorically, the tower opportunities in my life have come and gone for months if not years. In the tower’s case, I hear rumors that engagement will happen, soon is the word. Yet, day after day, morning, noon, and night, it sits empty. It is waiting, but for what? Engaging is a choice which starts from within. It is never a head thing. Engagement begins with my heart.
