I lost my wallet!
Nothing can strike fear into your heart when this happens to you.
This week I lost my wallet. If you have ever been through this, you can understand how vulnerable you feel at this moment.
I will be honest. Initially I freaked out about it. My wife and I retraced my steps, where I had been and searched everywhere I knew I had it last. Our search turned up empty. So here I was without my drivers' license, debit card and credit card. It has seriously disrupted my life and I've felt pretty lost.
Isn't it scary how easy it is to disrupt our lives? It's definitely a bold reminder.
I also didn't blame God or whine that things like this aren't supposed to happen to me. I know some people do. It rattled me for several hours, but I think I'm back to being calm again. While I trusted God and even asked Him to recover my wallet, I also asked Him to calm me down if it wasn't found.
Things happen to us whether we are believers or not. Life is life. We lose our wallets. Sure, God could have helped me recover my wallet, but it wasn't going to change my faith. Too many believers place their faith in God as long as things go their way, but God isn't our holy genie. He isn't going to always rescue us or perform a miracle just because we ask for one. He is God and He can do whatever He wants to do however He wants to do it.
A former pastor used to say repeatedly that there is One God and we're not Him. You know what I have discovered in all of these years? God still loves me regardless of what happens to me. Just because He didn't help me find my wallet doesn't mean He doesn't love me. Do I understand it? No, I really don't but get mad at God? What good would that do and what does that say about my faith?
It's easy to blame God or the devil when things go wrong in our lives. The truth is that we are imperfect and live in an imperfect world. We lose things, appliances break down and we have accidents. Stuff happens. We can't let these disruptions defeat us. I'm trying to learn that when things happen that I should pray first that God would keep me calm and give me wisdom to manage the situation. Of course, I'm always praying the miracle but I'm not going to backslide if the miracle doesn't come.
I can assure you that I wasn't walking around here with my hands in a praying position singing worship songs while frantically searching for my wallet. I'm still human. The emotions where everywhere but you adjust and keep your focus.
Trusting God is not about ignoring your feelings or reality. It is not pretending that everything is okay when it isn’t. Trusting God is living a life of belief in and obedience to God even when it’s difficult. C.S. Lewis once said: