Missed Opportunities

I received a call today from the library on campus. The person on the line said that a student had come in and said that her life had been threatened last night and that she needed to use the computer real quick. Since I oversee the Student Affairs department, I was called to see if the student could come and speak with me (I assumed that the student wanted to file a complaint - maybe the person doing the threatening was also a student - and in this case we have to get involved). I agreed of course and within a few minutes, this young lady was sitting in front of me in tears explaining to me the telephone call that she had received last night.

After she explained to me that the person never used her name and just said they were going to kill her and gave her the date, I told her that my hope is that this is just a simple Halloween prank and that someone randomly dialed her number and made the threat. I told her that I have heard of this happening quite often around this time of year (as I'm sure many of you have too). I gave her my recommendation for what to do with the telephone company/police, and then I had the opportunity to tell her that I wanted to pray for her and her safety in case this was actually someone that was trying to hurt her.

I tell you this story because it reminds me of the opportunities that God places in our lives every day to share with others about Him and His love for them. Some days we may have the opportunity to share the gospel and other days it may be a simple word of encouragement or an offer to pray for someone in need. But whatever the case, we must make sure that we are open to the moving of the Spirit and willing to say "yes" to Him when He pushes us in a certain direction.

I wonder how many opportunities we've missed because we were too busy with our own lives to realize that there was someone right in front of us who was screaming out for something that we could have shared with them??