"See, sift & seize" ~ rick warren ~

In a recent sermon, Rich Warren did a better job at describing the importance of not only seeing opportunities in front of us, but in recognizing which the interesting ones which catch our attention & the ones that truly seize our heart, are worthy of our focus & follow through.  

“See, sift & seize” says so much to me.  See the opportunities in from of me. Sift through them, setting aside the good for the great.  Seize them & make them my own, teaming interest with determination, action & persistence.  

Sifting is an often neglected step in the process.  Being able to tell the difference between a truly good opportunity & one that is great.  And, as Rick says, be prepared for unintended consequences.  

I have dear friends who followed an opportunity that looked to many others like the lesser of two job offers.  As it turned out, the choice did create a lot of challenges in their lives that never would have come up with the other job offer.  Serious, difficult challenges.  But they saw opportunity in adversity, sifted through their options, and seized the one that spoke most clearly to their hearts.  Their lives changed, so did countless others in ways they never could have imagined when he first took the original job offer!  Rather than experiencing the unintended as draining & dreadful, they worked what presented its self into something wonderful. 

My friends never lost their focus on their basic faith in themselves, in each other, in their children & family.  That was & is, always & forever, the center pole of their life.  It wasn’t easy, the path they took.  It called on everyone to make sacrifices, to keep their eye on the future, to work in each moment with the hope & expectation of a more fulfilled future.  

It's true, they seem to have a talent for discerning the great from the good.  They've passed that awareness down to their children & inspired their friends to be more aware, always remembering that seems great to others might not to you, that your great might not even seem good to them.  Be able to see, sift & seize for your self.  

Rick surprised me in pointing out that it is as right for opportunities to fit our personal purpose & calling as it is to feel like it’s a call from God.  “You need to be purpose driven not prophet, pressure, priority or public-opinion driven."

Loved his focus on timing – that opportunities come when we least expect them.  We need to be prepared & ready to see them, if when & how they do. 

Just this past week, I wrote a thank you to a young man who changed my life – a lot of lives – when he was a senior in high school.  As part of his senior project, he put together a benefit concert that would have challenged almost every adult I know.  He was 18.  Age had nothing to do with his effectiveness, with his ability to reach out & recruit singers from a variety of colleges who’d never heard of his school, but who came away from their experience with new awareness & appreciation - of him, his high school & its sister college.  Again – he was 18.

Then, there’s me.  Am at an age when most of my classmates are looking toward retirement.  Some already are!  Yet, here I am, embarking on my most ambitious life work ever.  Tucked Rick’s words in my heart – “You could have the opportunity of your life waiting for you next week.  You may be 20, 40, or 60 and God may have been holding it until now, but if you're not ready, you may miss it.  (God) can put you overnight in a position that you never expected but you've just got to be ready."

See,sift & seize – three words that I needed in my life right now.  My thanks to Rick Warren for saying them out loud, for sharing his experiences with foregoing the good for the great, for his shout out that opportunities know no age limit when we are prepared to see them, take the time to sift them & then make the effort to use the energies that will fulfill them.