Taking responsibility and risks (3)

Guess which big company felt like “choking on its own candies” after it elected not to feature one of its products in the 1982 blockbuster film E.T.? If you said M&M’s, you’d be right! How did it happen? Turns out the Mars candy bar company executives decided nothing could be gained from allowing their M&M’s candies to be used in what some of them considered “a silly movie.” Consequently, the little boy Elliott wound up luring the loveable alien E.T. with Hershey’s Reese’s Pieces. That one scene drew millions of customers worldwide into candy stores in quest of Reese’s Pieces! Thanks to this movie mega-hit, Hershey’s sales shot up 65 percent! It’s interesting that the Mars executives who said “No” probably lived in big houses, drove big cars, and earned big salaries. Yep, doubt and fear stalk the rich as well as the poor; you’ll find nay-sayers at the top and bottom of the corporate ladder. Recall these words from the famous poem by John Greenleaf Whittier: “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’” Think of all the times opportunity knocked and nobody answered. Are you standing before a door of opportunity today? Are you afraid to walk through it? Don’t be. God is with you. His Word says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” When God gives you a gift, He gives you the grace and grit to use it. So step out in faith, “commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed” (Proverbs 16:3 NLT).