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Lost May Not Mean Gone Forever

Have you ever lost something, I mean really lost something? The thing you lost was so lost that you never thought you would ever see it again.

lost may not mean gone forever

Recently I lost something that bad.

Usually I’m pretty good at finding things I’ve misplaced. I trace my steps, recall where I’ve been or what I’ve done and often am able to locate the item that’s gone AWOL.

But not this time. I played out all the possible scenarios, the places I could have put this thing – my Apple Pencil – but it was lost.

An Apple Pencil is a utensil used for drawing and writing on an iPad. It is incredibly accurate and is even pressure sensitive. You can write lightly or darker, even use shading.

You can probably guess that it cost a few bucks, so losing it was a real concern of mine. 

I recalled the steps I might have taken with it or where I would have put it. It was not in any of those places.

I usually keep it in my briefcase and there had been a few times I had taken my briefcase out of the house. I was sure I had lost it then.

… There was another time when something of mine got so lost I’d given up hope. 

I was probably in about grade 7 or 8. I had a pet iguana we called, “Iguan (Eguon)”. After a few years he had grown to about 2 feet long.

He was certainly big enough to notice if he was next to you.

Well, we were going on a family vacation and I thought I would let him out in the back yard for a bit before we left. 

I turned my head for a moment and the guy was gone. I mean, he was green and I had put him in the grass, but he took off fast!

All my searching turned up nothing – no lizard. 

So we left on vacation for two weeks … the coldest two weeks of the summer. I was sure he was a goner, that I’d never see him, or at least alive, again. 

But when we arrived home, my neighbour told me he had seen Iguan in some bushes the previous week. I looked and, sure enough, he was still there. I found my iguana, even though I thought he was lost forever.

After all my searching for my Apple Pencil, I was sure it had fallen out of my briefcase somewhere and was gone forever. 

I almost bought a new one but the store didn’t have any in stock. 

That night I was thinking about my pencil and a thought came into my head. I remembered travelling to our daughter’s home and staying there. And I had taken my iPad and thought maybe I had taken my Apple Pencil as well. I determined to check my travel bag in the morning. 

Sure enough after a check, it was way down, wedged into one of seams of the bag. 

What I thought I’d never see again, I found. I can’t tell you how happy I was to find that Apple Pencil. 

… It was almost like the joy of the guy in the Bible who found his lost son. 

Here’s the thing: God never gives up on finding people who are lost – and by lost, I mean people who do not have a relationship with God. He keeps searching, so don’t try so hard to hide from Him … and, by that I mean be open to listen for Him calling after you. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you lost that you thought you’d never see again? Leave your comments and questions below.

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An Expiry Date May Be On The Horizon

Things have an expiry date, they stop working or they get phased out. 

an expiry date may be on the horizon

Have you ever taken a good hard look at your closet? I don’t mean just opening it up and grabbing a shirt or a pair of pants. I mean really looking at what all is in there. 

We don’t do this enough and that is why our closets are stuffed full.

When you look in your closet with a desire to really see what is there, you find things you don’t wear any more. 

In my closet I have a section of shirts I wear in the winter and a section of shirts I wear in the summer. But I also have a section of shirts I don’t wear at all.

Never … any more that is.

But those shirts stay in my closet year after year. 

I have some shirts that I still wear that I’ve had for years. But I have some clothes that have gone out of style or they don’t fit me, or they have gone out of style AND don’t fit me. 

I say that because there are a few items in my closet that don’t fit but if I reduced my mass, I would definitely wear them. I keep those clothes because I have hope. It might be fanciful hope, but it is still hope. 

I really could get rid of a third of my shirts on the basis that I don’t wear them and probably will never wear them again.

I don’t think I am different from most people. We could all do a clothing purge.

Shirts and pants are not the only things that don’t last forever. Almost everything we have has a time limit on it – like the two hard drives I need to replace in the next three months.

I have to replace them not because they don’t work. They have been working fine for a number of years. The company that makes these hard drives has just decided to stop supporting them. 

They are giving plenty of time to get a replacement and are emailing me weekly reminders of their expiry date. 

Hey, they are even offering to give me a discount if I purchase a new hard drive that they will continue to support … until they don’t. 

These drives are not just external hard drives you plug into your computer. These drives attach to your network and are accessible remotely. The information I have stored on them I can access from anywhere at any time. 

But I guess it’s the end of the run for these hard drives. I can still store information on them, but now I’ll have to plug them into my computer to access any of it. They will make great paper weights when they are replaced.

I like the idea of the discount and I probably will take advantage of it. 

Wouldn’t it be great if there was such a discount with the old clothes we don’t wear any more?  

There’s the thing: Everything has an expiry date; nothing lasts forever. You and I have an expiry date as well. We, however, are not going to get emails every week warning us of when we will expire. We need to be prepared for that date in advance. Don’t wait too long. Be sure to have a relationship with Christ Jesus so that when your expiry date comes, you go to be with God in heaven.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: What in your life is expiring that you need to do something about? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Embarrassment Can Last Forever

From time to time I publish an article I’ve written in the past. This blog post is from November 2014, enjoy.

I’m sure everyone, at some point, has wanted to kick themselves for something they did or said.  For many of us, this happens rather frequently … too frequently for my liking.

I remember entering a Sunday School class when I was in my teens and making a snide remark about the teacher, thinking he wasn’t there yet … only to hear the teacher respond. At that moment, I wanted to take my words back.

As I recall, I didn’t remain in the class for the whole lesson that Sunday.  

Then there was the time I was with a bunch of friends on a bus and I saw a man burning leaves on his front lawn. I yelled some comment out to the man which, in the moment, I thought was quite witty.  

But all my friends thought it was lame – I mean really lame! I was pretty embarrassed at that moment, and every once in a while, even 40 years later, I still feel like kicking myself for making that comment.

The times we stick our foot in our mouth – or do something so dumb that the actors of “Dumb and Dumber 2” would be embarrassed for us – stay with us and its hard to forget them. 

But the worst are the times we say or do things that hurt someone else. Those are the worst because it’s about more than just being mortified or humiliated; you’ve caused someone pain as a result.

By the time you’re in your 50’s, you’d think those days would be over. When the person is a loved one, like a daughter, you’d think this couldn’t happen.  

But it did happen with me the other day. I was in a meeting … a prayer meeting. Four of us (my daughter included) had grouped together and shared some personal things we wanted prayer for.

I was just about to pray for my daughter Karlie – in fact, the first few words had come out of my mouth – when my phone started to ring.

I know, you’re supposed to turn your phone off in the movies, services and prayer meetings. Well I hadn’t, and my ringer is a funky piano tune.  

I panicked and went for my phone, quickly swiping my finger across the screen and answering it. 

Of course being in a prayer meeting I couldn’t talk loudly, so I quietly said, “Hang on; I’m in a meeting,” as I moved to an exit.  

That’s right, I left praying for my daughter to answer a phone call!  

I was kicking myself all the way to the exit. And I’ve been kicking myself ever since! 

How could someone do that? How could I do that? What message did I send my daughter in that moment?

I know this is one of those moments that I will cringe about every time I think of it … for years! You can’t take your actions back; you can’t undo what’s been done.

All I could do is say, “I’m sorry, Karlie. I panicked and did the wrong thing. Will you forgive me?”

Here’s the thing:  When we sin, that memory can linger with us and Satan can use it against us to discourage us, to make us too embarrassed to go to God with it. But the best thing, the only thing we should do, is confess our sin to God and move on from there. You can’t take it back. You might not even be able to forget it, but it doesn’t have to keep you from restoring your relationship with God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s one of your most embarrassing moments and what did you do about it?  Leave your comment below.

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My Toothpaste Never Runs Out

Some things seem to last forever and never run out. You can always seem to get a little more out of them.

About two weeks ago I put toothpaste on the grocery list because I was running out.

I actually thought that I was going to squeeze the last out of the tube before we made a grocery run, but every day for the last two weeks there’s still been just a little more in the tube – just enough for one more brushing.

And every day I’ve thought that this was the last, but I keep getting enough for one more.

It’s like overnight it manufactures more toothpaste – not a lot mind you, but just enough for the next time I clean my teeth.

It’s like the Energizer bunny on the commercials; it just keeps going and going and going.

I have a razor that takes a battery and that thing lasts forever, too.

Oil also has that same characteristic. Have you ever put oil in your car and had to wait for the bottle to empty so you could cap the oil spout and get on your way?

You could stand there for ten minutes and there would still be a tiny stream of oil coming from that bottle.

It’s like the Old Testament story when the prophet told the widow to have her sons collect jars to put oil in. She kept pouring oil into the jars until she ran out of jars.

Finally the oil stopped flowing.

That was a miracle … even though it followed the pattern of how oil works.

I will tell you one thing that doesn’t have this forever principle and that is gas in your gas tank.

I’ve tested the theory out several times in my life and you can get the needle on the gas tank pretty low, usually even below the last mark on the gauge.

But if you push it, you’re going to run out of gas.

Probably the worst time that happened to me was about 9 pm one night when I was coming home from visiting a family. It was pouring rain and I ran out of gas on a fairly busy street.

I had to call home and have my son come to the rescue with a can of gas. … I got the impression that he was not too happy about it, especially about pouring the gas into the tank while getting seriously soaked.

But toothpaste keeps going. Today is the last morning I will be using this tube, but before I throw it in the garbage I’m going to see if I can squeeze one more dab out of it.

It’s not that I’m all that miserly when it comes to toothpaste. I don’t really think about it and hence, that’s why I’m still wringing out the last little blob.

… which gets me thinking, “How do they get toothpaste in there in the first place?” That’s a whole other blog post.

Here’s the thing: The grace of God works much the same way. When you think that you have run out of God’s favour, when you think that God couldn’t possibly forgive you, or have anything to do with you, there is just enough grace for that time. Don’t ever give up or look elsewhere; you can always find grace when you seek Him authentically.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When have you received unexpected grace? Leave your comments below.

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Running Shoes Don’t Last Forever

I guess the life expectancy of my running shoes had reached its limit and then some.

I can’t remember when I bought them, but I do remember buying a pair about 22 years ago. I can’t say for sure that the runners I have now are those, but let’s just say I’ve had this pair for a very, very long time.

There was a time when I would go through a pair of running shoes every year. They were my go-to, every day shoes.

Since then I find I don’t run very much, so they just stay in the closet, collecting dust until I go on my treadmill or rowing machine. … I guess that’s why I’ve been able to keep them so long.

This year though, I decided to play baseball, so out came my trusty running shoes.

I wore them every Monday this spring and summer, but these shoes will never feel my feet inside them again.

Last Monday they simply disintegrated. I don’t know why they chose this past week to break down and I don’t know why they blew up all at once instead of gradually.

When I put them on before ball, they seemed to be in really good shape. I had no thoughts of needing to replace them this year at all.

The only thing I can think of is that the infield was made of red clay and was pretty wet … and we were just taking batting practice.

The pattern was to hit 10 balls, take a break while another guy hit ten, and then hit another 10 balls.

It might have been a combination of things, including extended time in the batter’s box dragging my toe through the wet clay as I swung through the pitch.

For the first 10 balls, I decided to hit right-handed. I noticed that a bunch of clay had gotten up inside the tread on one shoe.

For the next ten, I decided to hit my natural way – left-handed – and this time it was the other shoe that filled up with clay under the tread.

I then took my turn fielding balls.

By the time I finished my next at bat, the soles of my shoes were flapping like the tongue of a big old dog who’d just finished slurping down his dinner meal.

I walked back to my car feeling like I was wearing clown shoes! It was such an odd feeling.

The shoes were done, finished, not even good enough to cut the grass in.

Last night I went out looking for a new pair of running shoes. Cross trainers seem to be the type of shoe best suited to my activities. … $100 later and I’m ready for baseball next week.

Here’s the thing: In life, most of the time, we manage just fine. We even handle struggles with not too much sweat. But every once in a while the wheels fall off, the shoes disintegrate, life blows up in our face. This happens when we are least expecting it, usually when we are not ready for it. If you’re not in the habit of turning to God, you can really find yourself lost, floundering, panicked. Begin a relationship with God today – if you haven’t done so already – because He can put your life back together.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What unexpected thing has blown up in front of you? Leave your comments below.

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I Was Stuck At This Red Light Forever

The other night I was stuck at a red light for an inordinate amount of time.

I was on my way to our cottage for my yearly planning retreat. On one stretch of highway, that is only one lane in each direction, there was work being done on a bridge.

I don’t know what it is with little bridges but they seem to be the hardest things in the world to fix. It takes months and months and, in some cases, years to repair them.

This bridge is no exception., I think they could build a huge suspension bridge over a vast canyon quicker than completing the repair work to this bridge.

With the work being done on the bridge, it is down to one lane … That’s it! – one lane for traffic going in both directions.

This bridge is maybe only 30 feet in length, but it completely controls the traffic flow.

When I got to the bridge, and saw about 10 vehicles ahead of me, I naturally thought we would get our chance to cross the bridge in no time.

At first I didn’t even put the car in park; I just kept my foot on the brake. I didn’t think this would take long at all.

Boy was I wrong! The cars coming the other way just kept coming. The worst part was there were breaks in the traffic.

Seven, eight or nine cars would pass by going south and then there would be nothing. Every time there was a break, I thought, “Okay, the light changed and now it’s our turn to go.”

No. Just when I thought it would be time for us to start moving, I would see headlights coming from the other direction and another 10, maybe 12 cars, would drive by.

Ten minutes we waited with no sign that we were going to get a green light in the next little while … or month!

But there was a sign of hope.

Just a few yards ahead of me was a gravel road. I quickly looked at the maps on my phone and made a real fast decision to cut out of the line and take a detour.

No one else was doing it but I thought, “Someone has to start it up.”

I cut out of the line and made a break for it. The detour took me about 10 minutes but I came out well beyond the traffic interruption.

When I got to the crossroads to join up with the original highway I had been on, there was a stop light and I had to make a left turn.

As I waited for the light to turn green – because, of course, there was no way I would get a green light when I approached the intersection – I noticed a truck pass by.

I had a suspicion that I’d seen that truck before.

After I got back on the highway, and caught up to the traffic, I was sure it was the same truck. … And I was in the exact same position behind the truck as I was when we had been stuck at the light.

I didn’t gain one inch.

Here’s the thing: Impatience gets us to act, but sometimes our actions don’t really do us any good. When we are impatient with God, our impatience can lead us to take action that just gets in the way of what God is doing. It might delay things further or worse, it could set us back. Wait on God and don’t let your impatience cause you to try to circumvent God’s plan.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: What delays have caused you to be impatient with God? Leave your comments below.