When Opportunity Knocks

The ancient Greeks had a statue called Opportunity, sculpted by Lysipus. The statue had winged feet, a great lock of hair coming from his forehead and was completely bald in the back of his head. The inscription at the base reads something like this in the English translation:

Who made thee? – Lysipus made me.

What is your name? – My name is Opportunity.

Why do you have wings on your feet? – Because I fly away swiftly.

Why do you have a forelock? – So anyone can seize me when I come.

Why are you bald in back? – When I am gone by, none can lay hold of me.

Opportunity is a fleeting thing. We cannot control the timing of when it will come our way, and we cannot keep it and store it away for a more convenient time after it arrives. When opportunity presents itself to you, you have to work on its schedule, not yours. If you delay, more often than not, that particular opportunity will be gone. 

Opportunity rarely shows up when circumstances are perfect for you to pounce on it so you must be prepared to make the adjustments in your schedule if possible. 

Solomon’s advice for us today shows us one of the dangers of not taking advantage of opportunity in due season – “If you are too lazy to plow when the season is right, you will not have food at harvest time.” 

A lazy person will find every reason known to man to avoid doing what needs to be done. In this instance the lazy person avoids work because the weather doesn’t suit him. If the weather was perfect though, you better believe the lazy person would find some other reason to not get things done.

The example of plowing is perfect and obviously, well-understood in our neck of the woods. You simply cannot farm on your own schedule. The plowing has to be done at a certain time. The planting has to happen within a small window of time. The harvesting has to happen at a specific time. 

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