Poetry

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Opportunity Missed

Who have you talked to today?
What is it that you had to say?
Did you witness that Christ is the Way?
Have you put it off for another day?

Just some questions for you to ponder
While I sit back here and wonder
At the missed opportunity that I had
To save the life of a poor young lad

The Lord put a young man in my life
Who must have been filled with strife
Though outward signs there were none
Opportunities missed, a very big one

Though we spent a few hours together
Talking of the mundane, like the weather
Nothing noteworthy was ever spoken
I did not know this young spirit was broken

As the one opportunity came and went
Our time together is over and spent
This one chance to witness, a missed one
For the chance and the man are now gone

Brothers and Sisters,

It is with a sad heart with which I write today. The poem tells the story. I had an opportunity to share Christ and did not take advantage of it. I do not sit here in self-pity, but I do feel regret. I feel that had I done as commissioned by the Lord, then perhaps that young man may have received the message I was to deliver. Maybe had I been more receptive to the Spirit’s leading I would have been useful in the Lord’s work. There were no signs of distress, no apparent troubles or problems, no outward signs to which I have been trained to look, yet this man took his own life a day after I had a chance to talk with him. I know there is nothing that I could have done to change anything, but I also know that the Lord could and would have used me to save him, had I been more open to the Spirit.

The only good that I can see from this situation is to learn from it. Learn to take the opportunities given to do the Lord’s work above all else. You never know, the Lord may have put you in that person’s path to avoid the very thing that has happened. So here is my lesson, don’t miss an opportunity like I have, go forth and witness. Be bold for the Lord for you never know what tomorrow may bring into that person’s life (or yours).

Humbled in the Lord,
Christian

© Christian Coutts

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