Making the Most of Every Opportunity

Make the most of every opportunity. - Ephesians 5:16

This little line packs a punch. The word for ‘opportunity’ is that wonderful Greek word ‘kairos’ that conveys meaningful time. Regular, tick-tock time is called chrono and that is not the word used here. That’s about days and hours and minutes. Kairos is about births and deaths and dreams and insights - it’s the category of time that captures meaning and importance.

What the author of Ephesians is trying to do here is to encourage us to pay attention to our lives. Our lives are not made up just of 24 hour days. Our lives are made up of meaningful moments which last far longer than any stop watch could ever capture.

One of the ways to ‘make the most of’ a kairos moment is simply to say it out loud or write it on a sheet of paper. Sometimes it’s simply the effort of naming a kairos moment that starts us in on the deeper work of seeing what God is up to in our lives. That’s because, in the end, all kairos moments are pregnant with God’s meaning in them. But when we just waltz through our days numbly, we miss out on all the good stuff God is up to.

So take a few moments right now. What has been the highlight in your last 24 hours? Your lowlight? Do you sense God’s presence or absence in those moments? Is there something to learn from them or a way to grow from them? Might even the Spirit be speaking to you through those moments?