FINDING TREASURE

Have you ever wondered if you’ve done something to really tick God off?  Have you ever been annoyed thinking He’s turned His back on you, though you know He tells you in His Word that He “never leaves nor forsakes you?”  Can we be real?

I was having just such a month about five years ago.  Nothing seemed to be going right because just about everything appeared to be going wrong.  It was as though the more good I did, the more dumped on I got.  Even my favorite hobby—metal detecting—was being destroyed.

Years before, an old family acquaintance rescued a cheap Bounty Hunter metal detector that had been cast to a curbside trash heap.  He fixed it up and gave it to me.  I treasured it, and found many cool things with it, including a bronze medallion, commemorating the silver anniversary of the Civil War while visiting in Woodstock, IL.  I did a lot of “swinging” with that device, and those that didn’t know I was married would have thought it was the detector and I that were joined at the hip.  I could literally go an entire day when given the chance.  Finally, it gave up the ghost, after having been repaired many times.  Now I was slated to drive about 700 miles in a round trip, 24 hour span to get personal business accomplished (minus my planned R and R).  I was so absorbed with myself I actually said out loud to God, “You really don’t like me very much, do you?”  God was quieter to me than I’d been to Him.

I couldn’t bear to tell my brother-in-law that my metal detector was broken—it was a passion the two of us shared.  Right before I left for the trip back, he gave me a couple of packages to take home—one was for his sister.

When I got home, I started to open the 2’ tall box that he’d said was for me.  As soon as I saw the first component, I knew what it was—and a fantastic detector at that!  Of course I called John right away to thank him profusely.  He went on to explain what happened.  “I ordered a metal detector a while back and when that one came in, I decided I didn’t like it as well as I thought I would, so instead of returning it, I bought a different one and kept it.  This morning, before you came over, I asked the Lord what He wanted me to do with it and He made it extremely clear; ‘Give it to Les’.

After thanking him some more and hanging up, I continued with my praise of God, feeling about as tall as hotdog water.  Not only was this a phenomenal metal detector (Fisher CZ-3D, retail value about $1,000), it came with everything from carrying bag to spade to extra disc.  It was then that I heard my own words, “You really don’t like me very much, do you?”  Wow—you would have needed an electron microscope to see how small I felt.

As I began to meditate on the Lord, I thought about how shallow I had been, and how deep He had been through it all.  Bible verses began leaping to mind.  “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17) and from Nehemiah 8:10 that, “…the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

David’s 13^th Psalm similarly expresses feelings of abandonment by God midst trying times.  He reminded the Lord of all the bad things that would happen to him if the Almighty did not intervene.  The psalmist looks to the past, noting that he has previously trusted in God’s mercy, and as a result can look to both present and future with rejoicing and singing—that which flows out of the abundance of a grateful heart—once temporarily hardened to the greatness of God by the pressures of this life.

Sometimes you just have to experience loss—to find the real treasure that was there all along.

b(Les)sings

Psalm 13

New King James Version (NKJV)

Psalm 13

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

 ¹ How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?
         How long will You hide Your face from me?
 ² How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
         Having sorrow in my heart daily?
         How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
     
 ³ Consider and hear me, O LORD my God;
         Enlighten my eyes,
         Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
 ⁴ Lest my enemy say,
         “I have prevailed against him”;
         Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
     
 ⁵ But I have trusted in Your mercy;
         My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
 ⁶ I will sing to the LORD,
         Because He has dealt bountifully with me.