Chance of a Lifetime

There once was and there once wasn’t a boy named Chance. Chance’s dream was to see the world, and not just see the world, but travel the world and soak in each vista, breathe the thin air of the Himalayas, touch the water of Niagra, and smell the muggy air of the Rainforest. As a child, he loved maps. He collected them, as well as globes. His father was a man who loved his child so he always bought his son a new and different map of the world each time he had to travel out of town for work. Chance would tack his maps all over his room, and each wall was filled with a different map, and even the ceiling had maps on it too so that he could lay in his bed and look straight up to see another piece of the world hanging above him. He also placed his globes around his room, he had five in all. They were beautiful. Each globe was turned perfectly so that from one point in the room he could look around and see a different section of the world from where he stood. He not only dreamed of seeing the world, but he had a passion to fulfill that dream. He knew one day he would be given the opportunity to travel the world.
Chance saw the world around him in a different light than most. He loved people and he always took time to help them the best that he could. He worked at a small town automobile shop just outside of Henderson, Arizona off of Interstate 15. And working at this shop meant that he had heard many stories of people’s travels coming from the East and going West to marvel at the ocean, or he heard about the people traveling from the West and heading East to the Big Apple, or Houston, or maybe even New Orleans. Each person’s stop at the shop was filled with a story, and each time Chance saw someone pulling in, he hoped for an amazing story. He especially loved the people whose cars were broken down. They would have their vehicle towed in, then they would sometimes have to stay two, three, or maybe even four or more hours to have their car fixed; in this amount of time, he could hear all about someone’s journey.
One day, at around 9:30 on a Friday morning, Chance was pumping a young woman’s gas while a Greyhound bus pulled in to the dusty station. It slowed down, coming to a complete and squeaky stop, and took up four parking spots in the parking lot. He pumped the last gallon of gas and took the woman’s money, never really taking his eyes off of the bus. The door slid open and a group of people stepped off of the bus. A few children were wiping their eyes from a restful nap and then squenting their eyes, attempting to open their eyes fully. Their mothers and fathers were behind them walking impatiently toward the restrooms. And the elderly followed after the children and adults. The older women and men were taking their time, not rushing anything because they had no reason to rush. They had already passed a majority of life, so they had no reason to hurry life. Everyone crammed inside of the shop, bought drinks and snacks, then made their way back outside to enjoy the sun and their refreshments. An elderly man approached Chance, and this was Chance’s opportunity to hear about the man’s travels on the bus. He greeted the man with a “Hi, how are you today, sir?”
The man cleared his throat and responded, “I’m fine today young man, how about yourself?”
“I’m great sir. We’ve been a little slow until you guys came in. Where did you guys come from?”
The elderly man chuckled, and then washed his Twinkie down with an old fashioned glass Coke. This was the only bottle the shop carried. Charles, the owner of the shop, wouldn’t buy plastic bottles or cans because he said he wouldn’t drink out of anything other than what he drank out of as a child.
The elderly man told Chance after his sip of Coke, “We started somewhere up in Kansas, done forgot the name now, but then we headed down the interstate into Colorado then backtracked down into Arizona and here we are now.”
Chance couldn’t stand it any longer, he asked in a subtle careless tone, “Where you guys headed now?”
“Oh, son, we’re going down this here interterstate a little further until we hit some road, then right off of that, we’re gonna see the Grand Canyon. It’ll be my second time seeing the Canyon. My wife and I went to see it some thirty years ago. We were coming to see if it changed any since we saw it last. You know, if it got bigger or smaller.” He ended with another chuckle, knowing what he said was humorous.
Chance imitated the man’s chuckle and said, “Oh, I see, so you and your wife are headed to see the Canyon, sort of like an anniversary thing, right?”
“No, son. You see about three months ago, she passed away and we already had this trip planned, and knowing her, she would have wanted me to go anyways. So I did. It’s a little of a rehabilitation thing for me right now. You know, the air, the mountains, the scenery, the people. God just made a beautiful world for His creation to ponder over. So, I’m here to do the pondering.”
“Doing a little pondering huh? Well, I’m sorry sir about your wife. I figured she was with you on this trip.”
“No, It’s fine son. No harm done.”
Chance glanced over to the bus and saw everyone loading up, and turned back to see if the elderly man realized the same scene, and his eyes were cast on the same as Chance’s.
“Well, I guess that’s my cue to get back on huh?”
Chance smiled, realizing his fun was over temporarily until the next visitor at the station. He looked at the old man and said, “Yeah, it seems so.”
The elderly man finished his vintage Coke, sat up from the chair, and threw the bottle away into the trash can. Then he stopped. Looked back. Then he said, “Hey, son. Do you have any plans until next week?”
Chance hesitated and then responded, “No sir. I work next week but I have vacation time anytime I wish to take it.”
The elderly man then said, “Well, this seems like your lucky day. My wife’s ticket isn’t being used, and I would love to have some company to the Grand Canyon and then to San Fransisco. The only catch is that I don’t have a ticket for you back to this place. Sorry, but you would have to find a way back home.”
Chance still was hesitating. He knew this would be an opportunity to see a piece of God’s country he had never seen. A chance to see a little piece of the world he wished to see as a little boy. But he was unsure about the time he had to spend with the elderly man. Would they get along? Would he enjoy the trip? Would he find a way back? What if this and what if that? Then he said to the man, “Sir, I would love to go but I better stick around here. They might need me in case of an emergency. You never really know about things around this area of the desert, but I thank you for the offer though.”
The elderly man understood Chance’s responsiblities but was a little upset that he couldn’t accompany him for the remainder of the trip. He told Chance, “It’s fine son. No worries. I really enjoyed the conversation with you. And hey, maybe I’ll send you some postcards of the trip.”
Chance smiled and responded, “That would be great sir. I would really enjoy that.”
The elderly man gave a smile and a quick wave as he made his way back to the bus, where he slowly boarded and took his seat.
Chance picked up the trash from the kids who decided to use the ground as their trashcan before they left, then he watched the bus continue down its south bound path. He continued to watch the bus until it disappeared into the horizon and wondered what life would have been like if he had taken the man’s offer.
A month later, Chance received postcards, and lots of them. He knew who they were from. They had all been packaged and sent at the same time. They were from all around the world! One from the Grand Canyon, San Fransisco, and a few from Oregon. Then Chance saw what he couldn’t believe. There was one from Paris. Another from Russia. One from Spain. One from Ireland and they continued on and on. He couldn’t believe it! The old man decided to travel the world for the past month, but he never told Chance about these expected travels. Then Chance began to read the postcards. The elderly man signed each postcard with his name that Chance never knew. It was Evan. And Evan had all of the postcards in order from his travels. Chance began to read about the man’s journey from around the world. He realized that the man never had intentions to travel the world. He expected to only see half of the West and then head home. But once he arrived in Oregon, he had an offer from a woman who had just won tickets from the radio station for a trip around Europe that began the next week, but she was unable to go due to her children, husband, and job. So, she offered them to Evan, and obviously, Evan took them but had much reluctancy before taking them from the woman’s hands. There were two tickets. He offered many people to join him across Europe but everyone thought it was a gimmick. They never believed the elderly man with a free ticket to join him around the world. Evan wrote about the amazing time he had and had wished that Chance could have joined him throughout the trip. Then, it hit Chance. The IT was regret. It was sharp and painful. He just realized that he could have fulfilled his long time passion and dream but gave it up. He said no. Turned his cheek to the man who offered him a small time of fun, which turned out to be an unforgetable trip around the world! He couldn’t believe what he had done. His chance, his opportunity was before him and he threw it away. He made up excuses because he was afraid of the journey. He literally gave up a chance of a lifetime.

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Sometimes, we are placed in these predicaments. More often than we realize, we are given an opportunity, a chance, but how we take it is in our choice. A dream like Chance’s is great but if we are placed face to face with chance, how will we act upon it? Dreams and passions are beautiful, and I believe God gave us both in order to hope, in order to glance at a future that is beyond our comprehension. We all have dreams and passions, but some of us have a harder journey finding our passions in life. Within our passions, we are going to be given a chance to live for them. Passions are separate from dreams. Passions carry our hearts, while dreams carry our minds. It’s benefitial for every human to have both. But if we simply think about our passions and dreams, and never act upon them, then what’s the use of having either? We are all going to be called to act, and how we act on chance will influence our lives forever.
The character Chance in our story was given his own name: chance. It seemed small to him in the moment, but isn’t that how we characterize each chance given to us? Insignificant? Trifling? Casual?
But what would have happened if Chance acted on his chance? A different world would have opened up. His passions and dreams would have been fulfilled. Chance, in his childhood, was willing to do anything to fulfill his passions, yet in his adolescence, he looked over his opportunity to fulfill the greatest dream he ever had. And I think that is often a common attribute of all people. We forget what our real passions are because we have “grown up” too much. We are sucked into this world of “work” and not enough “play” or even not enough “serving.” If Chance was a child and asked the same question by Evan, he wouldn’t have hesitated. He would have taken the opportunity on the spot. But this is what we do as adults, as individuals who have forgotten the passions that God Himself has laid on our hearts. We worry about the future and how we are going to get back to where we are once God lays before us an odd possibilty. Let me tell you something, God isn’t worried about getting you back to where you already are. He’s worried about progression, prosperity, and growth into the human being He originally created you to be. He desires for you to be this human of hope, of dreams, of passions, of glory, of love, of forgiveness, of mercy, and of beauty. His truest desire is for you to become more like Him. When God gives us a chance, we can’t worry about the future, because He already has it all planned out for us. So forget about worry, forget about doubt, because He’s going to take care of you no matter where you are because He is worried about your soul’s progression and prosperity.
So why do we second guess chance? I believe it is because we are stable in our little world. The reason we’re afraid of chance is because chance often leads to change, and the world is terrified of change, even when it’s for the best. And like Chance, when we fail to act on chance, our bodies produce a feeling called regret. The funny thing about regret is that sometimes we fail to learn from them. We even continue to not only make more bad choices but more regrets.
Chance is an opportunity. It’s a probablilty that believes the glass is either half-full or half-empty. And depending on our mindset of being either optimistic or pessimistic greatly effects the outcome of chance. When we give attention to chance, we are not only effecting ourselves but the entire world as well. The world works off of rules. Rules are somewhat reliable, meaning they are fixed. For instance, gravity will always effect us, and rain will always be falling somewhere. The world is full of cause and effect. The rules of earth can’t be broken, but with God, they can be bent.
There is no chance with God, but with hope and faith, there is always perfect will. Sometimes we allow chance to take its own path; we wait until it has done its damage, then we sit back and say, “It was destined to happen.” But what if it was within our power to step in and make sure that whatever did happen not happen? We can change the outcome of chance. If we act from God’s command, there will never be a statistic for some scientist to record, there will be perfection.
Chance has this bad reputation of being an opportunity of little hope. When in reality, chance is based on the effort of an ideal. What I mean is that if we really wish to allow the world to run its path, and permit chance to be exactly what we expected of it, then all effort is gone to exactly what we wished to happen. If we desire for chance to be fate, then the outcome reflects our efforts. Just like the saying, what you sow is what you reap.
Chance is an option, but more than this, it is a test of what we believe in. How we act upon chance mirrors the person we are or the person we are becoming. How we act on chance even reflects our relationship with the world and God. It is an opportunity to reflect God’s heart and the will He has for the world. In every right action from chance, we are developing into who God inevitably made us to be. We are perpetually being transformed into the the care-giver, the burden bearer, the humble, the lowly in Spirit to serve those who need love the most, and we are even being transformed into Christ Himself.
After each thump of your heart, God is reminding you that He gave you a heart to change the world, regardless if the world is willing to change. Don’t get me wrong, I believe God loves chance. It gives Him the opportunity to use us in order to show the world that the glass in neither half-full nor half-empty, but rather with Him, it is always overflowing.