lost

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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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I’m Missing Another One And The Total Is Mounting

It happened again just yesterday; another one went missing.

I'm missing another one and the total is mounting

Before you think the worst scenario, I’m not talking about some child abduction or any kind of kidnapping attempt. 

However, it surprises me how many times in a year that emergency system on our phones goes off to let us know that a child has been taken. It should never happen and it is always concerning when that message is broadcast.

But there are other things that go missing in our lives, some of them regularly. Fortunately most of the things that go missing are found. Like how many times do your keys go missing, even for a few minutes? 

Sometimes my reading glasses have gone missing. I’ve checked my pockets, my night stand and the last place I remembered using them, only to realize that they were on my head. 

The glasses were never really missing. It was my sense of feeling and awareness that went missing on those occasions. 

When you think about it, there are a lot of things that go missing every day. Whether it’s a piece of paper, your wallet, a nut or bolt, glasses, even your coat, anything can go missing, can’t it? 

One time, I had a hockey game but was feeling sick. My parents told me they didn’t want me to play, but I didn’t listen and went anyway. 

I put on my equipment and when I went to put on my skates, one was missing – just one skate. It turned out that my dad had just taken it out of my hockey bag. I didn’t play hockey that night. 

Most of what goes missing is found again, sometimes moments after it disappeared. But some things that go missing are never found again.

It was one of those things that went missing yesterday. 

I have a drawer where I keep all my socks. They are organized mostly by colour, but I have another section that is organized by numbers. That area is for single socks that have no mate. One sock out of a pair has gone missing. 

You might think it strange, but when a sock goes missing it is rarely found … well, at least in my experience. 

I have – based on yesterday’s new acquisition – a total of five single socks in that section of my sock drawer. 

By the very nature of me having a section where I keep these odd socks, you would think that I have hope of one day finding the missing socks. That’s not the case. I have doubles of a lot of my socks so I keep the odd ones in case a matching sock from another pair goes missing. Then I’ll still have a pair.

Socks that go missing don’t get found. I’m convinced the washing machine eats them or the dryer fries them and spits the pieces out through the vent.

All I know is I’m not going to see that sock again. 

Here’s the thing: Some people think that wherever we end up, we will be together and it will be a party. But heaven and hell are very different. Heaven is a place of community with God and others who have placed their faith in Christ. Hell, however, is not a place of community. When someone goes there, they go missing. People in hell will not get to console each other or take comfort in being with others. There will be no sense of togetherness whatsoever in hell. So while you can, be sure you are heading to the place of community where no one will go missing. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is the most common thing to go missing in your life? Leave your comments and questions below. 

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I Lost My Wife For A Moment

I almost lost my wife the other day … well, I did for a moment or two.

lost my wife

Someone can be right there beside you and then, in a moment, they can be gone. 

There is always that sick feeling with kids when, all of a sudden, things go silent. 

I remember a time when our kids were very young, about 3 and 5. I was at the mall with them shopping for a birthday present for Lily.

I asked a salesperson about a dress I was looking at possibly purchasing, while Karlie and Mike were playing in and around the clothing racks.  

As I was listening to the salesperson tell me about the dress, all of a sudden I realized I didn’t hear my kids. I started looking around and calling their names.  

Immediately panic set in. I excused myself from the conversation with the salesperson and started to take off in one direction. 

This was no ordinary mall I was in. I was at West Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in North America at the time. 

I was literally running past stores with no hint of where they might be. 

Suddenly I just felt like I was going in the wrong direction. I turned around and started running in the other direction, past the store I had been in. 

Then I spotted them. They had stopped and had half turned towards me, with these mischievous grins on their faces. As soon as they saw me running for them, they took off as fast as they could.

I caught them in seconds, hugged them and told them never to do that again. They were oblivious to any danger; it was all fun for them.

Well, yesterday I was in the water at Sauble Beach on Lake Huron. The waves were high – highest I’ve seen in a number of years. 

Lily was with me but slightly behind me. It was difficult to wade out because the waves were so big and coming in so fast. 

I kept trudging through, collapsing to the sandy bottom as the big rollers came crashing on me. 

After a few minutes of this, I turned to say something to Lily. But she wasn’t there. 

I was shocked. She had been right behind me. Where could she have gone? I looked back to our chairs on the beach and couldn’t see her there. 

Then I spied her coming up from a wave about forty yards down from me. 

She made a motion to me like she was going back to shore. Relieved that she was all right, I kept on going. 

A few minutes later I looked to the shore and she wasn’t there. Now what happened? Where could she be?

I started looking around the water again and I spotted her. This time she was about forty yards on the other side of me. 

Apparently the waves were overpowering her and she thought she would try to drift over to me, if she could get out far enough.  

After a little body surfing and being hammered by the waves, we called it a day. I was glad to have her back.

Here’s the thing: We can get lost in our own little world just trying to make it through life, or we can purposely run from God. But God is never far from us. All it takes is for us to turn around and look. If you want to be found by Him, He is there. Run to Him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is going on in your life right now that should cause you to turn around and look for God? Leave you comments and questions below.

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I Lost Something Precious

Have you ever lost something that was precious to you, only to realize you could live without it?

It happens a lot and in many different areas of our lives.

Years ago I had a watch that I got from my dad. It was a Rolex so it was worth a little bit. My dad wasn’t wearing it and it wasn’t working, so I took the back cover off and cleaned it up.

The insides of that watch looked much different than your run-of-the-mill watch. It was all shiny and had a couple of jewels in it. I put it back together and amazingly it worked. 

Since my dad wasn’t used to wearing watches, he didn’t seem to mind letting his teenage son wear it. 

I had that watch for about three years. 

Then just before a camping weekend with my friends, I thought maybe I should get a new watch band because the band was starting to wear out. 

But I never got it, and the first night of the camping trip I lost the watch. 

I looked forever for it, and that weekend learned the truth that the big outdoors is pretty big. 

Though I was upset with losing that watch, now it means very little to me. I’m way past missing that hand-me-down from my dad.

We can also lose a friend. We can be very close to someone, but then distance and time cause that friendship to wain, and not be as important to us as it once was. 

We can lose friends through death. Where once they were part of our lives, and we saw them frequently, enjoyed their conversations, humour, help, and company, suddenly they are gone – people who were precious to us are no longer with us. 

This weekend we said goodbye to someone like that. 

Colin had been an integral part of our church since I arrived 22 years ago. When I look around the church I see his handiwork in so many places. 

It’s a real loss, but I know that, in time, the loss will be eased. I’ve experienced it many times in my life. 

You can also lose a friend through a disagreement. Maybe you were hurt or felt betrayed and the friendship is lost. 

It’s possible to remain friendly but, for all intents and purposes, you or they don’t feel the same, and you’ve lost that friendship. … That might be the saddest loss of all, because the friendship is still there just beyond your grasp. You can see it, but that friendship remains lost until the hurt or betrayal is dealt with –  and that takes two willing people who desperately want to hold on to something precious and not lose it. 

Here’s the thing: God is your friend if you have put your faith in His son, Jesus. To God that friendship is not something He wants to lose. But you could lose interest if you let other things in your life become more of an interest to you. You could let wrongs build up between you so that you try to avoid God, causing you to lose something that is right in your grasp if you don’t deal with those wrongs. God has already agreed to make things right. Confess your sin regularly and keep what is most precious.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What friendship have you lost, and what can you do to get it back? Leave your comments below.