Phone.

Hi, Wolfies! I am so sorry about being so absent! I promise to do better. I don’t know where in the world I have been. Then again, neither do you. Because I haven’t written (and we’re back to the beginning).

I lost my phone yesterday.
Well, I didn’t LOSE my phone. I misplaced my phone.
Kind of.
I knew my phone was in my car.
But for the life of me I couldn’t find out WHERE in my car.

The story goes that I was on my way to help out with youth group at my church,  just moving on down the road when I came to a stop sign. I waited for the cute little cars and the big tractors to go by. I waited for the big little SUVs and the cute big semis. Then I waited for all of the animals to go by two-by-two. Finally a break came and I looked both ways.

Left, right, left, right again.
I see nothing.
Go.
I go.
And THEN I see something.
So what is a girl to do who now sees a truck coming TOWARDS her, out of nowhere?
She floors her gas pedal.
And just like a good little car should, mine zipped, really fast, out of the way so as not to make said trust slam on his brakes.
Phew.
Disaster averted.

But now we had other issues to deal with.

Where in the world was my phone?
In my huge hurry to get through the intersection all things in the car….shifted, if you will. As in, all of my cd cases went flying, my water bottle tipped over, my purse got flung to the floor and I am pretty sure the Kleenexes were now on the opposite end of the back window.

And somewhere in the shift the phone also shifted.

Now, mind you, I wasn’t looking for my phone when I was driving. Goodness, No. I don’t do that. I HATE talking on the phone when I am in the car, driving or not. I also hate it when other people are on the phone when I am in the car. I like knowing what is going on in people’s lives, but I don’t like hearing about it one-sided.

So I wasn’t looking for my phone when I was driving. I was looking for my phone when I got to the grocery store.

Do you know how disconcerting it is to walk into a grocery store, carrying your purse when it is PHONE-LESS when it is never phone-less?

It’s very disconcerting. And don’t think that I hadn’t looked. I had opened all four doors, looked under my seats, because that is where all of my cd cases now were, lifted up my atlas, looked down in between the seats.

You know what it is like, why am I telling you this? You all know what it’s like to lose the remote.
In a house that just had an earthquake and everything had just experienced movement it will never know again.

Maybe not.

Anyway.

Here is how the rest of my night looked:

In and out of grocery store. Look again. Nothing.

To youth group, look in car, nothing.

See somebody I know, contemplate interrupting them and saying, “I’m sorry. Can you call my phone, I can’t find it.” Decide to move on and not ask them.
See somebody I know, contemplate saying to them, “Can I run outside, and have you call me in one minute?” Decide not to.
Be semi-distracted throughout youth group with the knowledge that my purse on the coat rack is still phone-less.
Be very disconcerted.

At the end of youth group I finally said to someone, “Ok, I have to go. I have to find my phone.”

I must have looked like quite the scene. Or my feet must have because that is all anybody could probably see sticking out the open door of my car as I was sprawled out looking.

Then I saw my beacon of light: another friend I knew.
“HEY!!! Could you call my phone?! It is lost beyond repair.”

Seven times.

She called me seven times.

And in my frantic search, this thought occurred to me, “It’s almost like you are looking for a treasure you found hidden in a field.”

Hmmm.

Have you ever thought about what you are searching for?

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:44)

I think about the things I search for, primarily my search for the Lord, or rather my seeking him, since I have already been found by him. And I wonder if I look for him the way I looked for my phone? I mean, it was on my mind ALL night. I told you twice it DISCONCERTED me. And I started thinking, “Shouldn’t I be disconcerted if I walk into a grocery store without thinking about Jesus? Same way I was so upset that I walked in without my phone?”

I would like to think that I have a close walk with Jesus. I would like to think I DO find him in the grocery store a lot (for there is almost no more joy I get than from buying food), but I guess I was upset that my lost phone bothered me more than a distance from the Lord would.
And shouldn’t it?

So I guess my question for you today is the same question I have for myself:

Do I see my relationship with the Lord as if it is a treasure hidden in a field? Or my phone lost in my car? Like I am willing to get people involved in helping me find it when it is “lost beyond repair”? Or even if I can’t seem to find it after things in my life have shifted? Am I willing to search?

I found my phone, to finish the story.

Thanks to my good friend helping me search.
It was in the console.
Apparently I had put it there.
It wasn’t lost in a shift.
It was exactly where I had put it.
And there is another thought, I guess: Are you willing to believe that your relationship with the Lord is exactly where you put it?
You can’t expect to have open communication with God when you put him in a box.