SEIZING
OPPORTUNITIES
Recently while Janice and I were in Australia I
noticed that there were Starbucks coffee shops there and I couldn’t help but think about what a worldwide empire Starbucks has
become. It seems like there is a Starbucks on every street corner, every
terminal, every mall and every hotel in America. Pretty soon there are
going to be Starbucks in Starbucks.
When Howard Schultz purchased Starbucks on August 15, 1987
it was a small chain of coffeehouses in Seattle,
Washington. Nothing more, nothing
less. Howard Schultz said his big goal was to open one store in Portland, Oregon.
A few decades later, there are 11,000 stores in 37 countries with
approximately 35 million customer visits every week! And for what it’s
worth, Starbucks opens 5 new stores every day 365 days a year.
But Howard Schultz almost passed up the opportunity
because it seemed too big. Schultz said it felt like a case of the salmon
swallowing the whale. In other words, it seemed way to big for him to attempt.
The asking price was $4 million. I love the way Schultz describes the moment in
his book, Pour Your Heart Into it: This is my moment, I thought. If I
don’t seize the opportunity, if I don’t step out of my comfort zone
and risk it all, if I let too much time tick on, my moment will pass. I knew
that if I didn’t take advantage of this opportunity, I would replay it in
my mind for my whole life, wondering: What if? On June 26,
1992—less than five years after Howard Schultz seized the
opportunity—Starbucks’ stock went public. It was the second most
active stock traded on the NASDAQ and by the closing bell, its market
capitalization stood at $273 million. Not bad for a $4 million investment.
Schultz saw an opportunity and he seized it.
In Colossians 4 there is a verse that doesn’t get
much air time, but I think it a great definition of spiritual maturity. If all
of us obeyed this verse it would radically change our lives. Colossians 4:5
says: Make the most of every opportunity. This Scripture doesn’t
specify how many or how few opportunities. It doesn’t make a difference
between how small or how large the opportunity. We simply need to make the most
of every opportunity.
The word translated opportunity in Colossians 4:5 is the
Greek word kairos. It refers to a window of opportunity. The English word
opportunity comes from the Latin phrase ob portu. In the days before modern
harbors, ships had to wait till flood tide to make it into port. The Latin
phrase “ob portu” referred to that moment in time when the tide
would turn. The captain and crew would wait for that one moment, and they knew
that if they missed it, they would have to wait for another tide to come in.
We are surrounded by God-ordained
opportunities—opportunities to love, opportunities to laugh,
opportunities to give, opportunities to learn, opportunities to serve,
opportunities to give. Seeing and seizing those opportunities is at the heart
of what it means to follow Christ and be filled with the Spirit.
Most of us want our opportunities gift wrapped. We want
our lions stuffed or caged or cooked medium well and served on a silver
platter. But opportunities typically present themselves at the most
inconvenient time in the most inconvenient place. Opportunities often come disguised
as a big problem, but people who get ahead in life see them as opportunities.
Problems are opportunities in disguise!
I have a conviction: God is in the business of making sure
we meet the right people at the right time. He’s also in the business of
strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time. But here is
the catch: the right place often seems like the wrong place and the right time
often seems like the wrong time.