DON'T MISS OUT!

Today’s Newsletter headline, “Don’t Miss Out!”

Did it catch your interest?

Don’t worry, it’s not a false promise, I’m about to share with you multiple life changing opportunities, but I warn you, I fear that you won’t take advantage of them.

Why?

Because they will be too easy to apply and too cheap to afford, so that you’re likely to move right past them, for something far more costly and far more likely to disappoint.

Interested now?

I’m currently writing this from the nation of Cambodia. I am here on a serving trip with the school I lead and we’re staying in the capital city, only a stones throw from the mighty Mekong river.

Yesterday morning I had the privilege to walk along the river as my senses were filled with the sights, sounds, and smells of such a foreign and exotic place. A place very different then where I live in Oregon.

Afterwards I sat down at our hotel, where I drank coffee and juice, and snacked on some fresh fruit before my breakfast with the team. To be honest, I felt rich.

Food and lodging is so much more affordable in Cambodia. We really are on a serving trip, and will be working hard to serve the people here and doing it gladly, but this was a moment of relaxation and the perfect opportunity for some reflection.

Here’s what occurred to me then and afterwards:

I am blessed with financial opportunity, but I don’t always use it.

There are hundreds of millions of bright, hard working people across the globe who have perhaps 1/100th or 1/1000th of a chance of achieving the kind of wealth creation available to us in the United States and other developed nations.

It’s not because of their skills or character, its the environment in which those skills are placed.

I want to see more and more opportunities come to these people, but I also want to honor the opportunity I have been given and use it for good!

I am blessed with health/wellness opportunity, but I don’t always use it.

Many times a treatable injury or illness will occur in nations around the world without access to quality medical care and leave that person injured or sick the rest of their lives.

Or they will live out their lives malnourished with either not enough food or not enough nutritious food.

I sometimes get frustrated by the fact that I can’t yet afford all the healthy greens powders I want and other supplements, but I am coming to learn that the wealth of healthy options filling my local grocers vegetable section is amazing and accessible to me now.

Medical care is not cheap in the United States and can be a real challenge to afford, but I do have access and investing in my own health or that of my family is a 100x type of return on investment that I do have access too!

I don’t have everything I could ever want when it comes to health and wellness, but I have so much more than millions of others; and I am coming to believe I have all I need.

I want to honor the opportunity I have been given and steward my health well!

I am blessed with learning/education opportunities, but I don’t always use it.

Thankfully one of the things the church we are here serving here in Cambodia offers is free English classes. Last night I got to help out in two classes and in one the youngest student was 12 and the oldest 24.

These classes have the power to literally change the lives of these students and that of their whole family tree. In many cases saving them from a life of crime, prostitution, and or abject poverty.

I am blessed with an absolute embarrassment of riches when it comes to learning and educational opportunities, but unlike the students here, I don’t have to work 6 days a week before going in person to night classes.

This is a massive opportunity and I want to steward it well!

I am blessed with a nation founded on biblical principles, but I don’t always appreciate it.

Not everyone here on the Wise Letter is a follower of Jesus and that’s okay.

But after traveling to 5 different continents, it is my firm conviction that every one of us who has grown up in a culture founded on Christian/biblical principles like truth, justice, and mercy is immensely better off for it.

No earthly nation perfectly reflects Christ, but to the degree they do, the people thrive.

I am immensely blessed to have grown up in a nation built on Christian principles and further more to have been introduced to the person of Jesus Himself from childhood. I want to steward it well!

Can you see yourself in these opportunities?

They are all accessible, more so to us than almost anywhere in the world. Will you join me in honoring these opportunities for health, wealth, and wisdom; by stewarding them well?

From halfway around the world, see you next Thursday!

Geno Schmelzer,

Twice a month on my podcast, we talk about life and learning to actually steward the opportunities you have is part of that conversation. Subscribe and join in the conversation!