Searching

I recently had a great weekend eating and laying around the pool at my sister’s house.
While lying out by the pool I decided to catch up on my daily Bible reading and with my wet fingers began to turn those thin Bible pages. They of course started sticking together. I quickly learned…dry hands before reading Bible at pool…I’m really quick like that.
I had taken my hearing device (also know as a hearing aid…I just can’t use that term) out and laid it on the table before I went in for a swim and when I was ready to go in the house I grabbed all my things and headed upstairs. Once there, I realized I did not have my hearing device. So I went back down to get it from the table. It was not there. I searched all around the table and could not find it. Went back upstairs and checked all my clothing….nothing. My sister and brother-in-law both spent considerable time in the blazing hot sun searching the grass around the edge of the decking…nothing. I went to an event…came back and searched more…nothing….except frustration and disappointment. We worked hard to find that thing and we were earnest in our search but …nothing.
So I left and drove four hours to my home feeling pretty upset that I had lost a three thousand dollar ear piece and that tomorrow I would be back at working saying things like “I’m sorry can you repeat that?” What? I’m sorry what?” etc. etc.
The next morning I sat down with my cup of coffee and my Bible to start my day with my daily reading. When I opened my Bible the hearing device fell out…I was shocked relieved and very thankful. Because I had read it with wet sticky hands the device got stuck between the pages. I had even thumbed through it kind of quickly to see if it might be there. But I had not seen it.
I see a parallel to life in this story. Everything I was looking for was hidden in God’s word. A really diligent look in His word and I would have found exactly what I needed. I was just looking, diligently, in the wrong place.
No matter how diligently we search for things that will make our life better…no matter how sincerely we exert our efforts…and no matter how often we go searching or how long we search…we will not find real peace, happiness or contentment…our search can leave us feeling frustrated and disappointed with life. When in fact, all the answers, everything we are looking for has been securely tucked away in His word…just waiting to be discovered.
Look there….a quick thumb through and you will miss it… take your time...search...find...what you are looking for.

If you look for me, really search for me, you will find me”
                                                                               God

Sand Castles

Almost daily I listen as someone tells me how their life is incomplete…or worse…it’s falling apart. Peace and happiness have disappeared...again. As we talk I often discover that this is not the first time they have felt this way…it’s become a cycle. Often it is very obvious that there was no foundation to what they had established…they build and rebuild Sand Castles.

Sand Castles are amazing in beauty and easily crumble.

There is this amazing reoccurring situation where some people will do a lot of work putting together a life that looks great…they get into what looks like a great relationship, or finally land the right job… or maybe they manage to get the right house or the great car or maybe all of the above…everything that has the look of the really good life. As a matter of fact their life landscaping is so good it takes a really perceptive person to see that all this is happening without a proper foundation….then the winds of life began to blow…disappointment, unfulfilled expectations, sadness, betrayal, loss…the image they worked so hard to create begins to fade…the walls began to shake…the rain begins to fall…the sand begins to move… and the house begins to fall.

Sand Castles…are built for a moment of praise…not to withstand the coming storms.

With things or people…taking the time to do things the right way for the right reasons is never what we want to hear when we are in the “wanting” state…and we even know…deep down…that it is proven to bring a much better return. And, peace and happiness is not the same thing as feeling good today…they are the state of a mind and heart that has been cultivated and nurtured through the wanted and unwanted things of life. They are the sum of many decisions that required the rock solid foundational material of time, patience, endurance, and a trust that anything worth having in my life is probably not going to be attained quickly.

Sand castles…require hard work and a unique artistic ability…and although beautiful…they will not last.

There was a foolish man who built his house on the sand and when the rains came and the winds beat against that house his house fell. There was a wise man who built his house on a rock and when the rains came and the winds blew and beat against that house…that house stood.
Jesus