God's gifts to each of us are enormous, if we simply look for them.  The greatest of all that I have found is the gift of opportunity.  Opportunity is a word that conveys the feeling of progress, advancement, and as the American Heritage Dictionary reads, "A favorable or advantageous combination of circumstances". 

In my life in God, I am presented daily with favorable circumstances, opportunities to make choices between living spiritually or being purely human.  In the past, most of my choices were driven by the overwhelming power of human nature, rooted in habits that developed out of instinct and from years of looking for ways to satisfy the hunger that arose from an unquenchable feeling of loneliness.   Such things drive a soul to darkness in a way that chips one apart, a little piece at a time, while looking for that fulfillment that will surely be just around the next corner or behind the next bottle.  All trailing opportunities missed.

An ancient psalmist writes, "He reached down from on high and grasped me; he drew me out of great waters... He brought me out into an open place; he rescued me because he delighted in me".  I have felt the joy and relief behind these words in my own life, the day that I finally seized an opportunity to chose, and realized that I in order to live, I must surrender all of the things in my life that are driven by anything other than love.  Every door was opened and  the light of goodness filled each corner and  the rushing breeze of the Spirit removed the dust and darkness.  I set myself free from myself, and prayed to God that He would be my mind and my heart.

Another psalm, "remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; remember me according to your love..."  and another, "the Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I have been helped".  These are  words of comfort, the words that convey the situation of life today.  So, do I feel that I have I been made perfect or better than anyone?  Of course not, and I never shall be. But by realizing and seeing that one thing, that each day is an opportune gift from God to restore life in goodness and hope, I know that I can live. 

Live a life today, live as if you are who God created you to be.  Living away from your self is not a fearful place, it is not a lonely place.  It is where we all belong in order to be who we are.  The opportunity is always present, it is a gift waiting to be accepted.