Lost Keys...

We have all lost something at least once.  Isn’t it the most frustrating thing?  Losing house keys or car keys can throw your whole day off.   We scurry around frantically trying to find them.  We start retracing our last steps, replaying our movement around the house in our heads.  If anyone is like me, I will start to yell out, “Who moved my keys!”  I can never take the blame for losing them since I know for a fact I left the keys right there on the table.  Therefore, someone must have moved them.   It wasn’t my fault that they were lost.   But, what about those days when you are home alone missing the keys, you are sitting there talking to yourself and no one is talking back.  Who can you blame then?

My mother had partials.  She loved to eat, and would often complain about having to eat with them.  She didn’t like it and she would wrap her partials up in a napkin and enjoy her meal.  Far too often, that wrapped up napkin would become “trash” and make its way to the trash can.  I can remember so vividly how she would have to put on gloves to search through the trash to find that coveted set of dentures.  It was madness.  The entire house would be on eggshells until they were found.   

Just yesterday I found myself rummaging through the trash looking for a receipt.  I needed it to submit an expense report for work.  I held the trash from being taken out for a day while I meticulously reviewed every piece of paper in that bag.   

I began to realize how focused I was on trying to find a small $15 receipt for an expense I could just write off at the end of the year.  The attention and time and effort we put in looking for keys and other lost things,  the question of the day became—“Why do we not seek God in sense of urgency?”   Why do we give him part of our attention?   When we lose our keys everything stops!  We aren’t distracted by the television, the kids, or the radio.   In fact, everyone in the house stops what they are doing to help find the keys.   Our whole existence becomes a quest to find keys that in the grand scheme of things can be replaced.  Yes, it may take some maneuvering and adjustments of schedules, and we may have to spend some money to get a replacement but because we don’t want to be inconvenienced or spend money that we probably don’t have we will look and pray we find them.  We don’t stop until we do.  And, what happens when we find them—a sense of relief!  It is a sense of accomplishment.  We actually feel good that we didn’t stop until we found it.  

Jesus wants us to do the same with him.   If we seek him first, we can have all the things that we want, all the things we need, all the desires of our heart shall be ours according to HIS will.   We need to seek him with urgent expectation.  We need to seek him in all that we do.  When we seek him, he reveals himself to us.   If you think you were excited when you found that lost item you were looking for.  You should expect greater when you find Him.  He will be waiting for you. 

Find the key.  Turn it.  He will let you in!