Just this Once!

Have you ever observed the look on a footballer’s face, when He is about to take the last penalty kick that would be the deciding factor in the finals of a World Cup soccer tournament or UEFA Championship game? With all eyes on him; his team mates holding hands together in unity in anticipation of a positive outcome and the stadium in a state of absolute silence, he goes for that shot in that tense and apprehensive moment and musters all he has to make sure he drives the ball into the net, behind the goalkeeper.  That is the kind of focus I want to talk about this morning.

Life sometimes gives us one golden opportunity to “hit the nail on the head” on something. When you miss it, you miss out. Yes, I know there are some opportunities we fail to maximise that come back to us in other forms but sometimes, for some particular ones, you just have to go for it once and get it right. For such, chances are they are not replicated ever again. I cannot but ponder on one of such examples in an interesting story in the bible and I’ll like to share it with you.

The Israelites had sinned in the bible as usual and they were being punished. God had to raise a woman for them as a judge in the person of Deborah and she went with them to war against the people oppressing them. It happened that God fought on their behalf and the enemies who had come against them started to run away. Sisera who was the captain of the opposition army ran and found refuge in the house of a woman named Jael and she warmly welcomed him into her house. Right in her very house was her nation’s greatest oppressor. She was probably a housewife sitting at home whilst her husband had gone to work but Mr Opportunity visited her on that fateful day.  This was an opportunity dangling right before her very eyes; She either acted boldly or just allow things be. Refusal to act may lead to continued oppression of her people and so she took a step…

Judges 4: 19 -Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him. 20And he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man here?’ you shall say, ‘No.’ ”21Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

This is one of the most daring acts I have read about. A woman, probably very young, took a bold step in killing a man who was trained for war, experienced in fighting battles and who was a master in killing people….She nailed a tent peg into the temple of a prodigious General Sisera! The temple is the flat area on each side of your head in front of the top of your ear. No doubt he was extremely tired but he could have woken up at the slightest sound, being a General who had been trained to be at alert at all times; whether awake or asleep.  I am certain that if she had not gotten it right at the first attempt, that attempt would have marked the end of her life. I wonder how she got so near to the man and got her acts together, driving the nail in just once. Yes the bible tells us the man was exhausted but her success must have been attributable to her determination, focus and courage. She must have seen it as her one and only chance and she went for it. Bravo! Her courageous act delivered her nation from the hands of the wicked oppressor.

David in the bible killed Goliath at the first attempt, with one single stone.  1^st Samuel 17: 49 says “Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth”. Just one throw and the huge and overwhelming Goliath came falling down. Just one attempt at that opportunity and he became a life time hero. If David had missed the first throw, he probably would have become jittery, Goliath would have been trudging nearer as he brought out the other stones one after the other, and chances are he would have missed the other throws. Sometimes, we need to courageously take on an opportunity, tackle a challenge which would bring us out of obscurity forever. Some opportunities are very rare and you can’t afford to miss them.  Some come so suddenly that if we are not discerning enough, we may not identify them. Some come to us not even looking like anything worth considering, but in them may be the key to a lifetime “wow “story.

So I’m challenging you today- to seize the moment by courage. Fling that stone, touch that helm of the garment, climb that tree (like Zaccheus), take that bold step like Esther. Oh yes if the King had not favoured Esther and summoned her to come, she would have been dead, because she broke protocol to see him at that moment. Her attitude was “if I perish, I perish, but I’m just going to seize this moment and actualise my dream! Make that request like Nehemiah, whom the King asked what He wanted and by seizing the moment and declaring what he wanted, the chain of events that led to the rebuilding of the temple started (Nehemiah 2:1).  Send that proposal out today! Make that request to your boss, dare that challenge, snap out of that depression for once. All odds may be against you but when you are “single-eyed”, focusing on that goal, with the God factor on your life, you will achieve your goal and make a difference. God crowns your efforts and determination with an outstanding victory and He’ll give you a beautiful victory story.

Someone said “to every man there comes in his life time that special moment when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered a chance to do a very special thing, unique to him and fitted to his talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work which would be his "finest hour"

Today may be your day, seize it! Don’t forget, no prospect comes introducing itself by saying “Hello I am Mr Opportunity”, it’s up to you to unwrap and determine if that would be your life changing encounter or not.

Okay, Let me know what you think!

The Pen…