I Suspect This Has Happened to You Also
This past week I had an experience that I have had before, and I suspect you have as well. It can be especially frustrating and exasperating. I was looking for something and couldn’t find it. I just knew I put it in a good, sensible place. The trouble was that good sensible place wasn’t where I thought it was. It was a small piece to a camera that I am trying out at the church. I couldn’t imagine in my wildest dreams that I had been so careless as to throw it out. I knew it was important and so I started looking in the most logical places. First I looked everywhere throughout my office at the church and I do mean everywhere. I couldn’t find it the first time I looked or the second a day later or the third a day later still. If this reminds you a bit about insanity – doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result – it is perfectly justifiable to draw that conclusion. The thought passed through my mind after the third futile attempt.
But I didn’t stop there. I looked in the sound booth as many different times as I did in my office only here I added the delusion that maybe I hid it in some clever place so it would get lost! Still no luck. I also looked through my home office multiple times wracking my brains where in the world this small but necessary piece for the camera might be. Still I came up empty handed here as well.
I went into the church this afternoon to look for a fourth and what I promised myself would be the last time (unless I convinced myself that repeating this exercise in futility warranted yet another try - which I have certainly done in the past). Still no luck. I was getting ready to embark on the embarrassing, inconvenient and sometimes headache filled process of ordering a replacement part as I walked back into my office at the church for what I assumed would be the last time. As I walked through the door I looked down at the bag I use to carry my laptop computer and its accessories….
Then it hit me out of the blue. I’ve discovered that moments like this happen often in situations like this and I have come to understand them as very often a prompting of God’s Spirit. I eagerly unzipped the bag thinking this would have been a very good place to put this part. And there it was, looking up at me as if it had eyes. Frustration gone. No part ordering stress. A much better night’s sleep tonight. Perhaps best of all I was able to try something for the first time with the camera and it worked pretty well.
I share this with you because things like this can happen far too often. Sometimes its about something we have misplaced or “lost” and other times it can be because we feel lost, the things we have come to rely or depend on have gotten jumbled up.
As I reflect on this my breakthrough came when I had given up trying to do it my way. Letting go and letting God is an incredibly important and valuable lesson in life. It is easy to say but far more challenging to practice. But oh how worth it it is!
I find turning to the Bible can often help me to let go and let God. Here are some of the passages I love to let soak into my spirit which quiet me and open me up for those out of the blue moments: Psalm 4, Psalm 23, Provers 3:1-12, especially 5-8, Isaiah 40:31, Isaiah 43:1-3, especially verse 1, Isaiah 43:25. There are plenty more in the Old Testament and of course there are many, many in the New Testament. The ones I shared are some favorites that came to me almost without thinking. You may well have your own and that is fine. The important thing is to embrace them and let them slow you down and center you so you can better let go and let God.
Grace and Peace, John