Do you look for opportunities? L.O.F.O Sometimes the very thing we most need we miss seeing because we are not open to looking for the not so obvious opportunities.
I was walking with my wife into our local shopping mall yesterday when we happened to notice a car with a flat tire. Inside the vehicle was an elderly lady unaware of her deflated rear wheel.
We got her attention, and I offered to change it for her.
As I began to do this, she apologized for the state of her car boot, which was full of her work material. I had a little laugh as I shared with her the state of my car boot with all my gardening tools.
L.O.F.O. – Look out for opportunities
As we chatted, she shared that she needed a gardener to come and do some work on her little garden. She lives close to where I live, so this was excellent news.
Just the previous day, I had prayed a little prayer asking for some more gardening opportunities to come my way. Five minutes later, I had an email from a Real Estate agent asking me to do some work and now another job.
I wonder how many times God puts opportunities to engage with him in various ways right in front of us, but we miss them. It may be a work situation, but it may also be an opportunity to give thanks to someone, to praise God, to be still.
L.O.F.O. – Look out for opportunities is a phrase I learned from Dave Riddell, and mostly it applies, I have always felt, to work situations.
I have spent many years supporting people with Mental Illness who are generally supported on Government-funded benefits. I encourage them to L.O.F.O. – Look out for opportunities. It may be something as simple as changing a flat tire, but who knows where that may lead.
L.O.F.O. Always has an element of risk.
There is a risk when we take a new initiative. Will it work? Will I look a fool? What will others think?
These little sentences can be some of the voices that build resistance, and yet if we don’t take that next step, we may well stay thirsty in a desert.
The Saga of Desert Pete
A note Found in the Desert beside an old rusty pump-
“Dear Friend,
This pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer in it, and it should last for at least five years. But the washer dries out, and the pump has to be primed. So under the white rock to the north, I’ve buried a bottle of water, out of the sun, and corked up.
There’s enough water in the bottle to prime the pump, but not if you take a drink first.
Pour about one-fourth of the water and let it soak the leather washer. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy. You’ll get water.
This well has never run dry. Have some faith. Then, when you’ve pumped all the water you need, fill the bottle and put it back where you found it for the next feller who travels
this path.
“Desert Pete”
There is always a risk you have to take in the taking up of opportunities.
Stepping out of your comfort zone, an interruption to your plans, the hands getting dirty ( changing tires is a messy business), a pouring out of a precious resource.
Good mental health is seen when we L.O.F.O – lookout for opportunities.
- Opportunities to give thanks
- Opportunities to worship
- Opportunities to serve
- Opportunities to be quiet and listen for God’s still small voice
- Opportunities to encourage
- Opportunities to love
- Opportunities to …
Mental Illness often has an element of inward internalization, much like a snail withdrawing inside its shell.
A habit of self-absorption about the internal mental struggles faced can become the norm. No snail ever moves forward while it remains bound within its shell.
Today, please L.O.F.O. – Look out for opportunities and then come back to this post and share the opportunity presented to you and the outcome.
What is a L.O.F.O? – Look out for opportunity example you would like to share below.
Barry Pearman
Photo Credit: Afroswede via Compfight cc
