every opportunity

There’s a thing at work that we call “kicking the can down the road.” That’s when you decide to postpone dealing with a problem, or you find a way to defer it. If you respond to a problematic email, for example, by sending back, “Can you get me more information?” then you’ve kicked the can down the road.

Usually we do that because it’s just not a good time. We have other things we’re working on, or maybe we don’t want to spend the resources right now. But the end result is that the problem lives on.

Paul reminds me this morning how often I have a “kick the can” mentality when it comes to mission. I never decide not to do it, but I often decide not to do it today. And then I find that for 30 or 60 or 365 consecutive days I’ve postponed the very thing I’m alive to do.

Here’s a better way, according to Paul from Colossians 4:5-6: “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Every conversation that doesn’t encourage a brother or introduce someone to Jesus is a missed opportunity. In a few weeks I won’t even remember what those other things were that we talked about; certainly they won’t seem important at the end of my life. But the result of my graceless, unseasoned conversations is that very few of my conversations have the impact they should.

Instead of looking for the right day, or finding a good time, Paul says to make the most of every single opportunity. Every can kicked down the road is a missed chance. That other stuff can wait; this is what’s important.