Lesson from a Loss
By Marianne Greene
Sometimes the Lord has amazing ways of getting His points across. In this case, He wanted to underline for me the power of praise in good times and in bad times.
Recently my husband Jerry and I went on a trip—one of the first trips we have ever taken together as a couple without our children. We had been invited to a reunion of musicians who had worked together through the years and who had greatly contributed to the musical heritage of TFI. Many are dear friends with whom we had shared wonderful times. Some we had not seen for over 30 years. Others we met for the first time. It was a magical time, and was followed by a visit with our daughter in San Antonio. We thoroughly enjoyed this six-day trip, and truly felt a touch of heaven in so many ways.
Since we took six different flights, I had carefully planned how to keep our tickets and important documents: I had found a nice little leatherette dossier that conveniently fit into my handbag, yet was heavy enough so that if someone tried to rob me, I would feel it. It had a notebook in it where I kept important notes and phone numbers.
The night after we returned home, I woke up around 3:00 a.m. as I often do, and wanted to check some info I had in that notebook. My heart sank when, after looking all over the room and the house, I could not find the dossier, which contained not only the notebook, but both of our passports, our visas for Mexico (FM3s), several important and hard-to-get documents, as well as two envelopes containing a good amount of money and our tithe!
I called the taxi company that had driven us home from the airport, as I knew I had that dossier when we went through customs, so the loss had to have happened between customs and home. I called the “lost and found” office of customs and the lost and found of the airport terminal.
I was sick at my stomach, not only for all the money lost—kind donations made to our missionary work—but also for all the documents that would take us so much time and quite a bit of cash to replace. The lost and found desk at customs told me that there were three other people who had lost their documents that morning, so it made us think that maybe I had been robbed after all.
I felt so bad. I started to pray desperately and ask for the Lord’s mercy. I could not understand why this had happened, as I had been so watchful and careful. I tried to replay our every movement since we had gone through customs, but I drew a blank as to where it could have happened. The only place I had stopped was a little pharmacy where I just pulled out my wallet. Maybe I had left it in the taxi and the taxi driver was lying and had stolen it. Why such a pointless defeat after such a wonderful trip?
I asked for prayer from those I was living with, but I just could not find peace about this loss—until I finally stopped my feverish search and my complaining, and asked the Lord why He had allowed it to happen and what He wanted to teach me. I stopped telling Him that it was really wrong to have let it happen and started to ask what the GOOD reason was that He was allowing it!
He gave me two verses: “In this world you shall have tribulations…”1 Okay, so battles and setbacks and hazards are part of the deal, even when all seemed perfect until then and you think you got it all right! The same verse begins with, “These things I have spoken unto you that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” So I should have peace and be of good cheer!
I also received “In EVERYTHING give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you!”2 So I guess I need to somehow be cheerful and give thanks for this, even if I cannot see one good reason for it to happen? It was easy to give thanks during the days of vacation and fun and heavenly reunion, but now I had a REAL hard time giving praise. Of course, when I forced myself, I did find many reasons to give thanks, and I tried to praise even for this loss and for how I would be more humble now. (You see, I am often teasing Jerry or picking on him for losing things—that I am the one who always finds things, ahem!)
I focused on implementing the Lord’s counsel in these two verses, doing what they said in spite of what I felt or thought, and once I did, I found peace and acceptance that it was not the end of the world after all. I put it all into His great loving and capable hands and decided to just trust Him and be thankful that nothing worse had happened.
Two days after this incident we drove one of our daughters to the airport. To be sure I had done all I could, I went to check the little pharmacy where I had stopped for just a couple of minutes. The ladies asked me to describe what I had lost and what was inside. Then one of them asked, “Are you (my middle name)?” I said yes, and they pulled from the back room my leatherette dossier with all the documents, the notebook, and most of the money! A client had seen it (I must have pulled it out of my bag after all), had given it to them, and they had decided to keep it instead of turning it in to the lost and found offices, as they said it would then have been lost for sure. They had tried to call all the numbers in my notebook, but since they called me by my middle name, no one knew who they were asking for! They said they were going to keep it just two more days and then turn it in, but then I showed up. In this country, Mexico, where people receive so little pay, it is quite a miracle that I was able to get this back!
The Lord got a lot of mileage out of this. (After all, He did have GOOD reasons for allowing this to happen!) First, it certainly humbled me. Then it reminded me that when I ask the Lord for His insight in times of trial, He does not fail to speak and give His counsel. Whether or not I accept it or agree with it, it is when I follow it that I finally get that “peace that passeth understanding.”3 He honors my faith and obedience to His Word by helping me to let go of what I think is right and fair.
Besides, I needed this lesson on praising for not only the good in my life, but trusting and respecting Him enough to thank Him even for what I cannot understand and what does not make sense to me. I was so overjoyed when these dear ladies handed me the dossier with most of its contents (especially all of the vital documents); it showed me once more that He really is very close, personal, and a “gracious and merciful” God.4
I realized once more the great power He has given us in praise, combined with desperate prayer, which works wonders and performs miracles! I needed that reminder to help me face the new challenges which were waiting for me at home with the right attitude. Once more, Father knows best, and His ways are far greater than our ways and His thoughts much more effective than our thoughts.
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