Rings and Other Lost Things

One of my biggest pet peeves is losing something. It drives me nuts. Because of this I usually try to take extra special care to know where I put my stuff. Unfortunately life is not always so accommodating to such a desire.

When I do lose something I can almost always find it by retracing my day one step at a time until I realize the moment that I became separated from it. Case in point: just this morning I realized that I had misplaced my wedding ring.

I went back through my morning one step at a time. Where did I lose it? What was I doing? Did it happen when I was getting ready? No. Did I lose it on my morning run? I had it when I got home, I had it after I cleaned up. Then it hit me. I took off my ring when I was changing my son's diaper. I went to his room and sure enough there it was in the floor near where I changed him.

My relationship with God can be looked at in much the same way. Like my cherished ring, that relationship is very dear to me. It is the most important thing in my life. But there are times when I know in my selfishness that I allow other things to come between me and God, that is the stuff we call sin. And all of us do it. We all allow something to cause us to be separated from God. Sometimes it is willful sin. Something we do intentionally. Other times it is something we do wrong by not doing something right. That means we omit the right thing. All of it is something that has potential to drive a wedge between us and God.

We were all lost. We can retrace our steps through the human history found in the Old Testament Book of Genesis. There we see that the moment of separation came when our first parents, Adam and Eve, willfully sinned against God. And each of us have played some kind of role in following them in that.

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God." - Romans 3:23

Here is the awesome part. We know our moment of separation as a people. We also know our own personal moments of separation. And this is our window of opportunity to realize that God has provided a means to account for this. He has restored us in His power, like only He can. We were lost. We chose lostness. But God has made it so that we can each be found again. All we have to do is acknowledge our need for his restoration, and ask for His help. And the best part is that once we allow ourselves to be found God has told us that nothing would ever separate us from His love again.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39 NIV

June 12 - It Was Fitting

Read: Luke 15:11-32

It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found. (Luke 15:32 ESV)

Have you ever lost something dear to you? What happened when you found it? Losing stuff is a big pet peeve of mine so when it does happen I am dearly invested in finding it. I get really excited when I find something I have lost.

Jesus was clear in his famous story about the prodigal son. The Father celebrates lost things. He loves to celebrate lost things. Furthermore, He refuses to allow anything, including self righteous religious people, to get in the way of His welcoming celebration.

Outside of God we are dead. Lostness, life not lived under the saving grace of Jesus, is death. Salvation restores us to God. The Father loves and longs to celebrate that. He even goes so far as to say that celebrating the return of a lost son or daughter is expected. It is fitting.

June 11 - Joy Before Angels

Read: Luke 15:8-10

Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:10 ESV)

Joy is an incredible thing. A fruit of the spirit, it is arguably not spoken about enough. Rejoicing is the sudden outburst of joy. It is a spontaneous party erupting out of the unforeseen awesome.

Jesus told his audience that heaven rejoices over the salvation of someone. Just imagine that. Your salvation was and is the the cause for rejoicing across eternity. Heaven will be a glorious gathering of saints as we come together to exalt God and declare the wonders of His goodness toward us.

Have you been the cause of joy before angels? If you're in. The family of God, if you have started a life loved under the saving blood of Jesus, then the answer is yes. Heaven rejoices for you.

June 10 - After the One

Read: Luke 15:1-7

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? (Luke 15:4 ESV)

On our farm when I was growing up it was very common for my dad to go looking for a cow if it was separated from the herd. He would throw all of his effort into finding the missing animal and bring it back to the group. Jesus' parable about lost sheep teaches that God reacts much the same way over lost people.

We are silly, selfish, and dumb by default. Left to our own devices we would choose our own destruction over and over again—without even realizing it. This is what it means to be lost. We are wanderers. We are separated from God by our sins of omission and commission.

How amazing that He would initiate the rescue. That he cared enough about us to come and save us. The point to be learned is that each of us have incredible value and worth. We are worth so much that God would redeem us by the sacrificial death of His only Son. He would graft us into family.

Let me ask, are you among the one? Have you been brought back into the fold? It only takes a moment to ask.

March 12 - Lose to Find

Read: Matthew 10:34-39

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:39 ESV)

The Christian life can at times seem full of paradoxical things. One such paradox is the notion of losing life and finding life. Jesus was pretty clear. If you think you have found your life, you're lost, but if you're willing to let go of everything...only then will you really begin to live.

This is the kind of life he invites us into. To live, love, and serve him with everything. That in this process we abandon previous notions of what we thought our life was supposed to look like, and instead offer ourselves as a willing servant to be used for his purposes.

I am thirty two years old and rarely feel like I have it all figured out. I am solid in my relationship with God. That is, I am committed to continually growing in affection and obedience toward God. Even in that I find that I certainly never seem to know exactly what's going on in life every step of the way. Much of it often still seems a mystery.

It's actually when I begin to embrace the mystery of God that I usually grow the most in Him. Why? Because when I'm willing to place my faith in Jesus and follow where he leads I am willing to walk toward or away from anything. In those moments I am willing to lose the comfort and security of life to chase him completely. It's when you wake up thinking and acting like you have it all figured our that you are really in trouble. Which side of that coin do you find yourself on today?

March 3 - A Personal Connection

Read: John 1:43-45

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." (John 1:43 ESV)

According to the Bible, in terms of human attraction, Jesus was nothing spectacular to look upon. He was well regarded by people. He was admired for his teaching, compassion, and miracles. Was that alone enough to cause the large numbers of people who gathered around him to follow him?

Philip is counted among the original twelve. He was one chosen by Christ to steward Christianity in its infancy. Philip gave his life to fulfill the role Jesus had called him into. Philip probably already knew a lot about Jesus by the time Christ found him and stated those two words that changed his eternal destiny. Jesus was extremely well known in the region. Still, it took an experience with Jesus. It took personal connection for Philip to engage.

There are many we interact with on a regular basis that are similar to Philip. They need only experience a personal connection with Jesus to start their life of following. We are their best chance at a personal connection. After all, we are the representatives for Christ and his kingdom in this world.

How well are you representing? How are you representing? Are you connecting? Can you connect better?

March 2 - Finding Jesus

Read: John 1:41-42

He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which means Christ). (John 1:41 ESV)

I can not even begin to imagine the euphoria experienced by Andrew and Peter when they realized that they had found the Messiah. The title Messiah was such an important word in Old Testament Jewish tradition. For them to conclude that Jesus fulfilled that role was monumental. It was historic. It was life changing.

"Have you found Jesus, Gump?" "I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him."

Those classic lines from Forrest Gump used to replay in my mind all of the time. I came from a church culture and family tradition where I definitely did have to go searching or looking for Jesus. There was nowhere for him to hide in my life. We were in church every time the doors were open for the vast majority of my childhood. I never had to find Jesus because I never felt like he was lost.

In truth, I was the lost one. Actually that is all of our condition before beginning our relationship with Jesus. The sweet beauty of it all is that he finds us in our lostness. Jesus finds us.