LOST AND FOUND

PRACTICE: Identify one thing you previously enjoyed, haven’t done for a while and would like to do again. Carve out the time to do it this week. Don’t delay.

I had a lot going on. I needed to complete final preparations for an important event that I was hosting which also included work - related tasks. Layered on top of this was entertaining a precious house guest and preparations for additional guests scheduled to arrive immediately after the departure of the first. In the middle of my “organized” chaos, my niece reminded me that she was still waiting to receive a document previously promised. I took care of her request and continued my frantic preparations.

Day one, one house guest departs, and four new ones arrive and the search for the previously mentioned document began. Day two, someone asked to see the document and I was completely honest when I replied, “I don’t have it right now.” I was sure it would magically appear before my guests departed. Day three, I became a bit more anxious. By now I have looked everywhere imaginable. My guest departed without seeing the document. Days four, five and six come and go and I become convinced that it is lost forever, and I have but one choice, start over and reproduce. It was a really important document. Day seven just before getting out of bed, I remembered the location of the document. The location was so crystal clear, that I dressed, went to church and returned home before I confirmed the location. It was still in the copier. What a relief.

My learnings? On a surface level, multitasking is not my friend. Finish one thing before starting another when possible. On a deeper level, the value of the object was revealed in its being lost. “You don’t know what you have sometimes until it is gone.” For example, the value of good health may be revealed only when we no longer enjoy it. A few years ago, I tore my meniscus. It wasn’t until it was repaired, and I was no longer in pain that I realized what I had lost to the knee injury and the value of engaging in walking and running without pain.

SOMETIMES one needs to release something to find it. Guilt, burdens, unforgiveness, emotional pain and extra pounds on our bodies cause us the loss of peaceful, joy-filled, grateful living and wreak havoc on our spiritual and physical lives. When we release those things – loose them, we have a greater potential to find the life that we so desperately seek…a life of compassion, forgiveness and emotional stability.

Ephesians 4:31-32

PONDER THIS THOUGHT: I need to release to find…