You Might Be Missing Out

by Aug 15, 2019

You Might Be Missing Out

by Aug 15, 2019

You Might Be Missing Out

by Aug 15, 2019

Don’t you hate it when you miss out on something good?

You see a crazy Black Friday ad offering 65-inch TV’s for $100. You say to yourself, “Man, if only I needed a new TV right now, I would be all over that.” Then the next week your TV breaks.

You buy a plane ticket to the mainland. Then you find out it’s the same weekend that your favorite artist in the world is coming to Hawaii to perform.

Missing out is the worst. Sometimes it only takes something small to make us miss out on something big.

When I was a kid, I played on a super competitive soccer team. It was mostly lightning-quick and hyper-skilled Argentinian kids, so they stuck the slow and klutzy haole kid in the goal. Even with my pathetic goalkeeping, we still easily won every game. We made it all the way to the championship game, played in a giant stadium with thousands of people in the stands.

And that day I forgot my goalkeeper gloves. I had to borrow a pair from another kid, whose hands were twice as big as mine. The gloves barely stayed on. The game was tied toward the end of the second half. The other team’s striker was charging down an open field, straight for me. He kicked the ball. It came in like a rocket. Somehow I managed to get both hands on it, and … it sailed right into the goal along with the gloves off my hands.

All it took was a pair of forgotten gloves, lying on my kitchen table, to cost our team the championship.

As Solomon said it, “Dead flies make perfume stink” (Ecclesiastes 10:1). There’s so much value and possibility in a bottle of perfume. Smelling good can get you a second date. Or a second interview. But it only takes one stinky little fly to ruin everything. You spray on some rotten perfume or cologne just before the biggest sales pitch of your career? Your potential clients won’t remember anything about the life-changing product you were demonstrating for them, just the overpowering funk they were marinating in.

Like one little fly in the perfume can ruin the potential of the whole bottle, one little tendency in our lives can derail the big plans God might have for us. Just a little bit of impatience. Just a hint of laziness. Just a short period of avoidance. One little thing can ruin everything in life.

That’s why we need Jesus. He was perfectly loving, patient, hard-working, and hard-charging in life. And he died for all the times we’re not. Then he rose from the grave to give us new life: to empower us to be loving, patient, hard-working, and hard-charging like him. To let us experience the fulfillment and meaning of God’s plan for us.

That’s what we’ll be seeing this Sunday as we celebrate Sunday by the Sea. It’s the one time a year our entire church comes together to worship, out under a canopy at Ala Moana Beach Park with beautiful 270-degree views of the ocean. More details here. Don’t miss out! Invite a friend and join us.