Articles
Bat Girl
Bat Girl
She pulled into her Littleton, CO, subdivision heading to her family home. It was a beautiful, pleasant evening, and Natalie Autrey was driving about 30 m.p.h. with the windows rolled down. Suddenly, a bat flew into her car through the passenger's window, passed right in front of her face, and exited through the driver's side window. The winged mammal - led by sonar and not by sight - flew directly into and out of a car going 30 miles an hour without hitting anything! It flew right in front of Natalie's nose before she knew what happened. She said, "It all happened so fast, I did not realize what it was until it was gone!"
Isn't that the way life is sometimes? We are cruising along just minding our business. Meanwhile, opportunities, relationships, and responsibilities fly by right in front of our face without our noticing what it was. At the very least we do not notice them until - far too often - they have passed us by and are completely gone.
Ephesians 5:15 says, "be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise," (NASB). The word in the original language is a compound word. It joins together the words meaning "see" and "carefully." The Lord is telling us to "see carefully" or "see accurately" how we walk. Why? So we can see those opportunities, relationships, and responsibilities before they fly past us and are unavailable.
In the next two verses, Paul writes, "making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." The old Steve Miller Band song says, "Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future." The psalmist says, "So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom." (90:12) James writes, "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." (4:14).
So what does all this mean for us? Do not forget to look around! Every day presents opportunities to encourage, to serve, to invite, to study, to pray, to grow. Every day gives opportunities to spend time with and invest ourselves into our family, our spouses, our children, our co-workers, our neighbors, and others we love. Every day is full of responsibilities toward God, toward our family, toward ourselves, toward our church family, toward our community. It is too easy to get so wrapped up in "the drive" that we fail to see the opportunities, relationships, and responsibilities fly right in front of our face! Do not get so distracted by life that you fail to "see carefully" what is flying by right in front of your face! Corey Sawyers
