A little adversity doesn’t seem to bother this guy a bit!
I am a substitute teacher at a local elementary school. One of the teachers there always calls his tests, opportunities. He tells the kids not to think of them as tests, but as an opportunity to show him what they can do.
That got me to thinking about the tests in our adult lives. What if we were to see adversity in the world around us as a test and the test as an opportunity. What if adversity was just an opportunity to be a billboard for Jesus in a hurting world? Isn’t the best advertisement for Christianity the way in which we live?
Last week, I wrote a post about the Good Samaritans who came out of the woodwork to serve others during the snow storm that paralyzed the South. These people saw adversity as a chance to serve, and boy, did they serve! They may never know the outcome of the seeds that were planted due to their service.
There were Episcopal Churches that rang their bells and turned on their lights, welcoming weary, stranded travelers. If you could hear the church bells, the doors were open. Shelter was provided. What if some of those travelers had never even set foot in a church before? What kind of message do you think they received? Someone decided that adversity equaled opportunity.
We live in a fallen world. We are surrounded by adversity. There are house fires, floods, hurricanes, hunger, famine, poverty, and the list goes on.
What would happen if we all decided to look at adversity as a test, an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Christ? What if we decided to start in our own little corner of the world and then spread out? What would the world look like then?
Jesus said in Matthew 25:34-40 “When I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” Then the righteous ones said when did we do that? “Jesus replied, when you did these things for the least of my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!”
I’m going to try to start seeing adversity as an opportunity to serve. Instead of wringing my hands and being sad about a tragedy or sharing it on Facebook, I’m going to try to help in some small way.
What do you think? Do you think adversity equals opportunity? I’d love to hear from you.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂