moment

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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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Don’t Get Caught Up In The Moment

Have you ever been caught up in the moment, so much that you didn’t think of doing something that could improve that moment?

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… That sentence sounded a bit like a riddle that will leave you hypnotized. Let me try to explain.

The other day I was driving to work and my car was very cold. I was shivering and thinking about how cold I was almost all the way to work before I turned on the heat to warm things up.

I’ve had my present car for over six years now, so I know the car’s ways and quirks. One of the things I know about my car is how long it takes to warm up when it is cold.

I need to travel 4 kilometres before the heater really kicks in and starts to blow warm air into the cabin of my little Accent.

Up until that point, turning the heater fan on is pretty much counter productive. I’m cold already from the temperature outside; I don’t need to add to my coldness with a frosty breeze in my face.

So what I do is leave the fan on low or completely off until I drive four kilometres, and the heat starts to kick in.

I take the same route to work each day so I don’t have to look at the odometer to check if I’ve gone the necessary distance. I know when I pass a certain spot on the route that I can turn on the heat and actually get some.

The other day, however, as I was driving to work, I couldn’t get over how cold it was. We’ve had such a mild winter, I figured it should be pretty much over, and higher temperatures should be on the way.

I know the various groundhogs in Punxsutawney, Wiarton, and Shubenacadie had mixed responses when they emerged from their holes. But we should get the benefit of the doubt – two of the three didn’t see their shadows … that means early spring!

… I’m not sure you can trust the judgement of a groundhog anyway. I was just trying to get to work quickly so I could get out of the cold.

It was then that I realized that I’d passed my heat point several kilometres back. I was less than a kilometre from work when I remembered to crank up the heat.

It barely took the edge off by the time I pulled into my parking spot.

I was kicking myself for shivering all that way when I could have had the heat on and gotten warm instead.

My present situation of being cold had captured my attention and kept me from taking a small action that could have changed my circumstance.

Here’s the thing: When we are dealing with something that discourages, saddens, or frustrates us, we can concentrate on our state to the point where we don’t take any action to change our situation. There may be nothing in our power we can do to remove or change our present circumstance, but if we fail to take our situation to God, we miss out on an opportunity to find relief. Don’t be so into your moment that you fail to call on the Lord who can help you. He’s right there all the time.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: What caught your focus so that you failed to do something that could have changed your situation? Leave your comment below.