Crisis or Opportunity?

Romans 9:17 “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

However bad our circumstances might be today, they are unlikely to be worse than those of the poor Israelites languishing in despair as slaves in Egypt. Yet as Albert Einstein observed: “In the midst of difficulty lies opportunity.” Through their neglect of God, they’d ended up in a mess. Their crisis made them increasingly desperate, aware that they couldn’t make it on their own. And in that state of brokenness, they were ripe for God’s intervention.

We’re all at times confronted by seemingly impossible situations, but with a shift in perspective they are potentially wonderful opportunities in disguise. In the Chinese picture-letter alphabet, the symbol for ‘crisis’ is a combination of two characters – one meaning ‘danger’ and the other ‘opportunity’. So we can choose our own attitude and look at it either way. As Winston Churchill said: “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Normal people don’t actively seek out crises in their lives. I personally want to avoid them wherever I can, which I think is right, unless a dysfunctional situation needs addressing proactively. But crises come our way regardless of how hard we try to avoid them. And with the benefit of hindsight, I am mostly grateful for the crises the Lord has allowed me to go through. When the Israelites turned back to the Lord, he rescued them. Repeatedly. They had a story of his faithfulness. The crises were opportunities to grow, to learn, to become more like him. As the Chinese proverb says: “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”

So as you review your circumstances today, can you see any bright ray of hope in the midst of a dark challenging situation? You may or may not, but God does. Hold on to that!

Lord, would you turn each crisis into an opportunity in my life. Amen!