Have you ever lost anything? I once saw a T-shirt that said “Of everything I ever lost, I miss my mind the most.” I sometimes think I could wear that shirt! I’ve lost the normal things like keys, small tools, glasses and the like. Speaking of glasses, I had a boss who used to push his glasses up on top of his head, promptly forget doing that and then walk the halls asking everyone if they had seen his glasses. Poor guy!
Even if I eventually find that which was lost, my luck doesn’t generally run like the luck of Welsh farmer Ifor Edwards. This farmer lost his keys in a grassy field on his farm. He enlisted the help of some friends who like to treasure hunt with metal detectors. After a short while, they found Edwards’ keys, along with more than a dozen rare medieval coins from the 14th and 15th centuries worth thousands of today’s dollars!
I never watched “Lost” – the show, but I understand the premise of the show had something to do with survivors of the crash of an airliner flying from Australia to Los Angeles. The plane crashes on some weird island and these actors interact with each other and “others” they discover on the island. Never really “lost” but highly paid, the characters caused the show to be wildly popular; certainly a much more desirable scenario than being lost for real.
Our church family has begun a tradition of going as a group to an area corn maze every autumn. This year, Irons Mill Farmstead in New Wilmington was chosen. The maze was cut in a Pittsburgh Steelers theme. Promotional ads show the design in a photo taken from a plane. However, at ground level, the maze just looks like a field of corn with a few paths cut into it here and there. Once inside a corn maze, it’s easy to become disoriented and to begin walking in circles. At Coolspring Corn Maze, my daughter guided us through the maze by listening for, and orienting toward, the loud music playing in the dining shelter near the maze entrance. Without that music, from my perspective, all I could see was a lot of corn stalks.
Every once-in-a-while, we stumbled upon a short observation tower. Standing in those towers let me see something I couldn’t see while I was down in the maze. I gained a new perspective by being able to climb slightly above that which had me lost and confused. From up on a hill nearby, I could see much of the maze. If I could have flown high above the maze, I would have been able to see all the places I felt hopelessly lost, and would have been able to easily see the path that would have set me free from the maze.
Like the Welsh farmer or my boss who asked others for help to locate that which was lost, we can ask for help to lift us high above our troubles so we can see the situation in a better perspective. We have a Heavenly Father who is a finder of lost sheep. He can certainly rescue us from any of life’s mazes!
© 2013 Curt Savage Media
Not Words Alone from Curt Savage Media 