Opportunist

 

I worked at Mueller Iron Foundry, Chattanooga, TN from 1971-1976.  Since I was going to Tennessee Temple College at the time, I worked afternoon and night shifts most of the time.  One of my jobs was a crane operator.  The indoor crane was four stories up and moved 1 ½ ton ladles of liquid iron from the furnace level to the ground level.  The outdoor crane loaded scrap steel into hoppers using a two-ton electromagnet.  The track was fifty feet wide and three hundred feet long.  As the sun set during the afternoon shift, rats began to venture out of the safety of the scrap piles looking for scraps of food.  But there were two owls perched on the crane rails above.  They were looking for food too.  The rats!  If a rat was careless and ventured a little too far into the open, the nearest owl would silently plummet down to strike the unsuspecting rat.  The rat escaped if he detected the owl a split-second early, or the owl had supper if the rat detected the owl a split-second too late.  The rat was just looking for food, but the owl was an opportunist looking for an unsuspecting rat.  Hey, Satan is an opportunist just like the owl, looking for an unsuspecting target.  But the target is you!  Peter warned in I Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”  If you get reckless and stray too far from the dear Lord’s protection, Satan will swoop in and destroy you!  Yes, he will!  Hey, don’t be proud; don’t be self-willed.  Trust in the Lord and seek His protection because He is your only hope.  Trust in the Lord.  He is your only defense!