I like to imagine that I’m normally a somewhat rational person, but I admit that certain things push my “crazy” button. Losing stuff is one of those things.
Keys, socks, important papers – I HATE knowing that something has gone missing. Low-level feelings of anxiety and angst seem to settle over my psyche like a London fog when I can’t find something I’ve misplaced.
And losing stuff can’t even compare to the piercing heartbreak we experience when death or distance pries loved ones from our lives.
I like to hang on to people and things that I love, enjoy, and feel I need, and sadly, that’s just not usually possible in this fallen world. Loss is a frustrating, painful and inevitable part of life. And while we can’t avoid it, we can certainly learn to cope with it better than I sometimes do.
I saw an interview with a pastor from New Orleans who has learned hard and important lessons about coping with loss. Hurricane Katrina blew away everything in this man’s life except his family and his faith. His house and his church building were destroyed, and every member of his once-thriving congregation moved away from New Orleans following that terrible storm.
During this intense season of loss, the pastor said God taught Him this powerful truth: While optimists see the water glass as “half full” and pessimists see the glass as “half empty,” for believers in Jesus Christ, the glass is always completely full. Why? Because a “half-empty” water glass is, in reality, never empty. It’s always full of two things–water and air–and both are essential for life.
In the same way, our faith in the goodness, love and sovereignty of Jesus Christ is the invisible, essential “air” that fills our lives when they appear to be half empty.
When we suffer loss in our lives, the void left behind threatens to swallow all our joy, peace and hope. But God stands ready to fill the empty places, if we will choose to turn from our loss to embrace Him. We may grieve, we may feel anxious, we may suffer, but He will hold us and carry us, and we can heal, press on, and even laugh again.
Psalm 30:5 says, “…Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.” That’s God promise to His children.
There’s a great story tucked in the Bible in 2 Kings (chapter 4:1-7) about a widow who had lost much. The prophet Elisha paid her a call and asked her a simple question: “What do you have in the house?” All she had left was a little oil and enough faith to obey God, even when it didn’t make much sense. Read the story. See what God did with what the widow had when she stopped focusing on what she lacked.
This Thanksgiving, and every day, we can choose to dwell not on what we’ve lost, but on what we still have; to give thanks for the blessings we’ve been given, instead of demanding what we lack; to rejoice in God’s promises instead of complaining about life’s disappointments; to consider all that is right instead of fretting about all that is wrong.
God longs to fill our cups. He’s the One who will come in when it seems everyone else has left. Sometimes, perhaps, we cannot know He’s enough until He’s all we have. And when we learn that, then we know what Thanksgiving is truly all about.