Yellow Cars and Golden Opportunities.

If you were at Rolland Moore park yesterday, you might have heard several shouts of "Yellow car!" and multiple slaps. That's because my friend Nicole and I spent two and a half hours lying out on the grass, catching up and working on Bible study. We could see the road from where we were lying, so we played the Yellow Car game -- everytime a yellow car passes by, the first person to see it and shout, "Yellow car!" gets to slap the other person.

Now before you tell us how childish this game is, you have to at least try it. You will see how addicting it can be. As a result, while Nicole focused on her Bible study (satisfied with how many times she had slapped me, because she's better than me at this game), I stared at the road for about 20 minutes, ocassionally looking at my Bible study but being way too distracted because I just had to see a yellow car. I even prayed for this yellow car.

After cheating a couple times (slapping Nicole when I saw a yellow bus or a yellow motorcycle), I finally gave up and said aloud, "Fine, God - I give up! I'll focus on Bible study now!" I kid you not, just a second later, as Nicole was laughing at my exclamation, a yellow car pulled around the corner. I quickly yelled, "Yellow car!" and slapped Nicole, causing us both to double over laughing about how God has such a sense of humor. As soon as I had surrendered the game and decided to focus on God, He gave me the yellow car I had been asking for.

Now, I could turn this into a lesson about how God gives us the desires of our hearts if we delight in Him (Psalm 37:4), but using this yellow car game analogy would be a little ridiculous. But one thing I told Nicole after our laughter subsided was this:

I was so intent on seeing a yellow car that I literally stared at the road for 20 minutes, eyes darting back and forth at each passing car, jumping at every hint of yellow I saw. I was so attentive, so determined, and so excited...

If I had half the amount of attention, determination and excitement to see opportunities in my life to serve God, to share Him with others, to love people, how much more effective would I be? How much more effective would we all be?

Here's a good blog on making the most of every opportunity. Looking for these opportunities is something I want to give more attention to, more determination to and more excitement to. And if I happen to see a yellow car on the way, even better!

Photo source.