It’s a duck call to a mallard, a 75% off Instagram sale to a shopaholic, a box of Godiva chocolates to most of my friends.  Irresistible.  Enticing.  A guaranteed, surefire, “once in a lifetime opportunity.”  Never has a friend’s “O-I-A-L-O” investment given me anything but a migraine and a depleted bank account.  The invitation to ride a donkey to the depths of the Grand Canyon on a path only inches wider than the beast’s belly doesn’t mean I saddle up. And how many sets of knives do I need as a result of the “special ends in one hour” ploy?  Once-in-a-lifetime-opportunities have led to bankruptcy, divorce and even death (in which case, granted, the definition is literal).

Now, do I believe there are legitimate “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunities?  Absolutely. Every day God allows us to cross paths with people we will never see again who need to hear the gospel. Our family’s trip to the mission field in Africa taught me that doing without “things” gives me time to hang with God. Spending hours every day with my mother in the nursing home showed me how fragile life can be and how those who dined with her one meal can have funerals a few days later.  There were chances to talk to them about Jesus.

Sometimes I did.  But not always. After all, there’s always tomorrow…

Now, that’s foolishness.  The Bible is chock full of decisions that had to be made on the spot, but Matthew 25 is a great analogy of the need for immediacy.  Ten virgins have carried their lamps to meet the bridegroom. Only five took extra oil with them. When the bridegroom failed to show up, the ten fell asleep, waking only when he was a short distance away.   The foolish virgins found their lamps dimming and asked for the wise to share.  Let’s pick it up in verse nine.

“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’  But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.  Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’   “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

The point cannot be dismissed.

If we dilly-dally, thinking we’ll make Jesus our Lord “someday,” we are fools.  This day, this moment, might be our only chance to take Jesus up on his offer.  As for guaranteed, surefire “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunities, it doesn’t get much more legitimate than that.