October 23, 2014
Lost and Found…
“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When He has found it, He lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” Luke 15:4-5 (NASB)
I love secrets when they are fun and when they lead to life-giving experiences…a surprise birthday party…a surprise gift…a surprise guest…a fun story to laugh at…And, I do not want to keep a secret which would encourage, change, and transform a life…I do not want to keep a secret about the BEST news….and so, I share this fun little secret, this story, which led me to amazing and realizations about our Great God of Love…It is just too wonderful to keep to myself…
For those of you who have experienced the final stages of pregnancy, just prior to labor, I know you remember all of the discomforts…you cannot dress yourself…and even if you could, your clothes don’t fit anyway…you can’t see your feet and you wonder if they are still there… Moms begin to dream about what they will do when they are holding their sweet precious baby, what they will do after a long afternoon nap, and, of course, what they will eat after delivery!
Our daughter, Christie was no different and she was so excited to think about the “Celebration” meal after delivery. The day arrived for Samuel’s birth and family and friends visited in the waiting room bringing delicious food and treats which we shared with other anxious people awaiting the new arrival. Barry would sneak out occasionally to grab a little snack, a tiny morsel….and then, he would return to the labor room…trying to appear as ravenous as his laboring wife!
And then, Sweet Samuel was born and we celebrated the moments as we met him for the first time. Then it was time to bring the Celebration meal! I volunteered to pick up the food….Christie just wanted a turkey sandwich from the hospital bistro and Barry wanted Chick-fil-A….
All of this was perfect since Chick-fil-A was just two blocks from the hospital, and I was certain that I could handle that! So, I set out to do the pick-up! Before getting out of the room Christie said emphatically… “Mom, remember to take the first right turn and it will take you right back to the hospital.”
No problem, as I rushed out the door….NOW the reason she stopped me and instructed me was that I always get lost….always…In our children’s high school years, we almost missed many sporting events because half the team was lost with me, although, we always made it…. But, it could have been a problem! With her friends, those times were my claim to fame!
I ran down to the hospital bistro and made certain that I ordered the sandwich according to every detail…As I drove through and picked up the food checking my list twice for the new father, the rains began to fall and it was getting dark, a terrible combination for me! I not only missed the first right…the second right…the third and the fourth right….as the little voice in the back of my head was screaming, “Turn around!”, which I didn’t do….and I proceeded to drive around for twenty minutes ….LOST….I kept thinking that I would just run into the hospital; I was certain that I would see the lights of the tall hospital building, that I would find it on my own! I started to panic for fear the phone would ring and Christie would say, “MOM where are you? You have been gone for 40 minutes!” (20 to get food…20 minutes of being lost….)
Finally, I prayed and asked God to help me to find the hospital, and the quiet voice just whispered, “Use your resources….” And I think that I heard slight chuckle…
“Of course! I said out-loud… my GPS. Why didn’t I think of that?” I pulled into an empty parking lot, pulled the maps up on my phone and there was the ping… and that was me! Out of all the billions of people in this world, the Global Positioning System, found me! And I typed in my destination and clicked route….WOW…Step by step, incremental steps back to the hospital. But I was still fifteen minutes away, unbelievable…where had I driven?
The storm had hit by now and the rains were pouring down. I made it back to the hospital, quickly parked, and finally, after running around the hospital to find an unlocked door, and carrying a cold, soggy, turkey sandwich, and Chick-fil-A, I literally ran the cold Celebration Meal up to the room, and tossed it at the new parents. I made some very weak excuse about wanting to give them their bonding time with Sweet Samuel and ran out of the room, not giving them a chance to address my tardiness…..HOPING that they had not noticed, and they never said a word….Hmmmmm. I wonder if they noticed? And, I kept the silly secret until just recently…smiling and giggling, every time, I thought of this silliness…but, relishing the lesson learned…the amazing nature of our God…the amazing illustration!
As I got back on the road, and to be sure, I knew the way home, and I began to think about how wonderful it felt to not be lost; even when the storm was raging now, on July 17, I was peacefully driving in my car. And then, as the rains and the winds pounded and shook my car, yes, that good old Texas Thunder-storm, stopped traffic, totally, and I found myself stuck in the storm, but, I was not lost! I arrived at home safely and found Bill asleep in his chair, and I did not have to tell him that I had, once again, been lost! My secret…just God and me!
Several revelations came out of this experience… Most of you seldom get lost in your cars because you use your resources, your GPS…I should learn from you! But all of us get lost on the journey of life…of motherhood…womanhood…In marriages…at some points, the storms come…we get lost in circumstances we have created…some circumstances we are not responsible for…we encounter road blocks…we pick up extra baggage we are not supposed to carry…we get distracted and miss a turn…sometimes, we lose something along the way and we must go back to find it …and sometimes, we break-down along the way…
I remember many times in my life when I would allow the clutter, clatter, and the chatter, the distractions of this world, to interfere with where God wanted to lead me…and I would become lost in life, just like I was lost on that stormy summer evening, because I tried to handle things on my own! I remember as a teen thinking that God was just too busy for me…so for several years I tried to handle every aspect of my life, on my own…and, what a mess! Talk about being lost!
As I thought about my experience driving back from the hospital that evening, I thought about how God provides miraculous resources for our lives…if only we choose to tap into, or to consult Him, instead of going it alone! And I thought about the peace-filled moments when the storm surrounded me, but I was confident in where I was and I was confident of where I was going…certain of my destination…certain of the route which I was supposed to take, or to follow…certain of my Keeper…and, that is just how our lives are when we consult with, meet with, trust our Creator God…our Heavenly Father…who sent His Son in the flesh…who then sent The Helper, The Spirit to lead, to guide, to instruct and to teach us…when we choose to trust Him, instead of the independence we often choose for ourselves…which I chose for so many years…
I discovered that our Great Almighty God offers His Positioning System…HIS GPS…I discovered that I, that all of us, can rely on it as we navigate our marriages, our parenting…our life journeys.
God’s Positioning System consists of your identity, who God says you are…You are His Treasure! Of all the billions and billions of people on this earth, when you stop and consult God’s GPS, He sees you! He sees me! God created you in His image and He fearfully and wonderfully made you and He delights in you. He is the God who sees you. In Hebrew, the name is El Roi-Raw-EE…The God who sees me…and the Creator of the Universe knows and sees exactly where you are at the moment you consult Him, at the moment you cry out to Him, “I am Lost!…Where am I Lord? Where are You, Lord?” And, He answers!
He has a destination…a unique design for you, a unique plan for you…a place where He meets you…a place where He wants to connect and do life with you…The TRUTH is that He yearns for relationship with you, with your children. Just as you watch and sing over you angelic little babies and your teens who look angelic when they are sleeping, your Faithful, Loving God watches over you. “He sings over you…He will quiet you with His love.” Zephaniah 3:17
The question burns in the hearts of human-kind, and literally…the clutter, the clatter and the chatter scream out to distract, to create obstacles, to interrupt, to confuse, to sidetrack, to divert…but, at some point, He intends that we ask the question…HOW DO I GET THERE? HOW DO I NAVIGATE ON THIS JOURNEY? What route, what path do I take?
When I was lost that night, and I pulled up my satellite Global Positioning System…the ping came up….and it was me! Then I plugged in the destination of the hospital….and the route appeared, step-by-step, turn-by-turn…That is exactly what GOD”S GPS does. He sees each one of us…He has a destination…and Gods Positioning System, Jesus Christ, provides each one of us with the Route. God’s Absolute Truth shows us how to navigate to His destination for us.
Absolute Truth is true for you, for your children, for all people, for all times and for all places. Absolute Truth never changes. Jesus said of Himself when a disciple asked Him. Lord, how will we know the way, Jesus told him, “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6 (NLT)
And the amazing truth is that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 (NLT) Therefore, Absolute Truth does not change…God does not change…This is the constant in God’s Positioning System…This is the constant which guides us through every storm, every detour, every road-block, every distraction, and every break-down. It is the HOPE which is the anchor for our souls… (Hebrews 6:19) firm and secure…for our lives!
And the TRUTH is that God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…is GOD’s Magnificent GPS!
And, God sends the Helper, the Spirit of Truth to guide us into all Truth…John 16:13
*God’s Positioning System transformed my personal life and the life of our family when I, when we began to rely and to consult it…God’s GPS never changes…it is the constant. In this world of CHANGE, it is so much easier to list what does not change than what does…But God’s Truth does not change, remains firm and secure, helping us to navigate through the changes…through the transitions of this life.
*God’s Positioning System never needs updating…never is out-dated. It is always, current, and applicable, to every life. His Word spoke to me in my teen years during Young Life Bible studies when I read that He did not like gossip, back-biting, slander…and I was amazed at how He knew what teens were doing then…How did He know this when He wrote the Book so many years ago… “Could He be real?” The same One True God met with my daughter in 1989 as she read from her children’s Bible and ran into my bed-room to announce that she discovered and believed that God made the whole world! She was amazed…and she believed that day that God was who he said He was!
*God’s GPS only looks where you are at the present moment. God does not look at where you were, or what you have done in the past to determine whether He will show you the route…The past, or where you have been, or what you have done does not change His intention for you, or for me. It does not change His passion for you and His desire to have a relationship with you…with each one He has created.
* Nothing can interfere with the reception for God’s GPS …nothing…not a storm or a solar storm…nothing, except, the clutter, the clatter, and the chatter which you and I allow into our lives…the things which cause us to remove our eyes from the destination God has for us…from the step-by-step route and instructions He gives to us through His Word…through His Spirit…through His Son, those things which try to interrupt our relationship with the Living, Loving God!
Lost and Found
And so, I cannot help but celebrate and worship this Almighty God who literally runs after His lost sheep…His lost children…hearing their voices crying out…stirring His heart of compassion, of love, of provision…This is the God Almighty who heard my cry as a lost teen-ager, as a lost adult…and, I am proof that He left His flock in the open pasture to run after me, to find, me…to see the ping on His GPS when I asked Him to come and to find me and then to show me the route for the destination which He had for me…which He has for each one of you.
And on that stormy night, I realized how His GPS is always functioning for each one of us…and I experienced a reminder of how wonderful it feels to NOT be lost in the storms which are sure to come in this life…how wonderful it is to be able to sit in the midst of the storm and to be confident that you are on His path…His route…designed especially for you…leading you to relationship and to the presence of the One True God…our Heavenly Father.
So…this secret of being lost and then being found is just too incredible to keep to myself…Let’s join in the chuckle at my silliness on that summer night, of being lost with the food…But, knowing what it can look like when we are lost on the journey of life…and how it feels to be LOST…to be LOST in a storm…to be LOST in life.
I pray that we will embrace the mighty Truth of the nature of our Lord as He literally runs after His lost children…His lost sheep…because He values each one…He hears the cries of each one…He died for each one…and Now…He lives for each one!
I pray that you, that I, that all of our loved ones will tap into the divine resources which Our Father offers to each one of us…if we are willing to receive them, and to utilize them, and to embrace them…to embrace Jesus Christ…and to cry out to our Shepherd, who runs after His lost lambs…and then…
“And when He comes home, He calls together His friends and His neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’” Luke 15:6 (NASB)
He rejoices over you…
Abundant joy,
