lost things

I hate it when I lose stuff! Most of the time, I've simply misplaced the item(s) in question and brain-cramped as to where it is. As an admitted "messy", I can easily "lose" stuff right in front of myself. I think the worst experiences are those when I get stressed, frustrated, angry, and even blame others for the missing items. My wife and son are constantly taking my stuff and moving it! (And then I find it right where I left it!) The most embarrasing are when the "lost" item is on my person! (Eyeglasses on my shirt or head, pen behind my ear, etc.) I lost my cell phone today for about 10 hours! I called people I'd been with and places I'd been. I searched everywhere. I left a threatening voice mail for the would-be thief. I brought my son back to the home of our friends (across town) so maybe he could "help daddy find the phone" in case he had put it somewhere over there. Another desperate call to my phone revealed it's hiding place - between the driver's seat and center console in the car!

Aaaaagggghhh!! I'm not sure if this might be related to poor sleep, vitamin deficiency, or prior drug use, but it bugs the snot out of me! (Ahhh - Chooo!)

The worst losses in my life have been the times I was lost. Unlike the stranded islanders on the new hit ABC television series, I usually didn't realize my state of "lost-ness" right away. Before I could be rescued, I needed to be hit between the eyes with the hard, cold reality that I was lost in the first place. I've been lost in the woods, lost in the countryside, lost in sin, and even lost in religion! I managed to find my way out of the woods, and I got directions back from the countryside. But I had to own the fact that I was lost. Blaming others or circumstances for my lost state was unproductive in my being "rescued".

I was rescued from the lost path my sin was leading me down the night I was blown away by the imminent hellfire I was blazing toward in my rebellion and rejection of Christ. In one moment, I had such a revelation of my lost state, that I was frozen in fear that I would surely "bust hell wide open" if I did not turn from my sin immediately and surrender the lordship of my life to Jesus.

Years passed, and I came to another crossroads, where I realized I was lost again - this time in the deep and deceptive woods of religion. I had grown comfortable in my plastic, "bobble-head Christianity" (thanks, Drew, for that poignant little slogan). Man, not only is that a deep and treacherous wood, but there are so many living there that it's hard to leave. When I first identified myself as a lost sinner, it was so clear and obvious what/who I needed to cut ties with. But this "lost in religion" was much more difficult a problem. It wasn't so much a place or people that I needed to break with, but a whole mindset/philosophy of life.

For me, it's meant walking through a couple of years of struggle through the "de-programming" of many life-long ideas and beliefs. It has been an incredible, frightening, exciting, depressing, lonely, freeing journey so far. Each day is a new experience in finding 1. who God really is (outside of my own religious paradigms), 2. who I am in light of who God is and has created me to be, and 3. what true, Christian community looks like in light of the first two.

I'm thankful that He has connected me with others who are in similar places on their journey, and I look forward to assisting those whose hearts cry out for truth in relation to these three areas of their lives.

I'm thankful for my ability to identify when I'm lost. The truth is, we're only lost to God when we fail to recognize our lost state in relation to him, and fail to surrender to His leading us home. And, since home is where the heart is, the daily question for me is, "where is your heart?"