Monday night I decided that I needed to unwind and watch a movie. My husband graciously suggested I watch “Love Comes Softly” while he cooked dinner for me. We had purchased this movie some months ago on sale at Mardel’s. It seemed right up my alley just from the title. I quickly scanned the description on the back and read how many minutes the movie was, 88, perfect! I popped in the DVD and sat down. 5 minutes into it, not the ending, but 5 minutes in I’m crying. This young couple is pioneering new land in “the West” and came upon their new settlement together. Mixed emotions fill them as they argue and celebrate. Then my husband, Stephen enters the room and asks me a question about our food, so I pause the movie and regain my composure. Then I say ,”If the husband dies, I’m turning this off!” Well within two minutes “tragedy” hits and I lose it! I’m not ruining the story for you because what I had overlooked on the cover was the explanation that “tragedy” hits this young couple and she meets someone else! So much for a relaxing family movie!

Why am I sharing this silly story? Because I’ve been praying and preparing my heart this week to speak on lostness and while this was a movie, my heart was in far too sensitive of a place to handle that storyline (especially as a newlywed who is to embark on new territory myself as a missionary). Loss that we feel in our individual lives can leave us with a lot of pain. Pain that is not dealt with properly can become toxic emotions that hurt us and those around us. When we suffer loss, we are grieving and reeling and it effects all that surrounds us. Ever loss we incur creates new emotions and belief systems that form how we act and react.

There is a precious family I know who lost two of their three daughters in tragic events. The oldest daughter, who was married, died in the same car accident their youngest daughter survived. When the policeman came to their house and informed them of the news, the father yelled, “JESUS IS STILL LORD!”!!! His immediate reaction in a moment of trauma was to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus over the situation. He didn’t think that through, but it was a result of years of a solid dependency in Christ through the far smaller “losses”. This response and testimony shook me. This family later on lost their middle daughter because she had a seizure in her sleep while away at school. I met this family a couple of years after both of these incidents and was so loved and accepted by them. I couldn’t believe how steadfast they were and how graciously they opened their home and discipled young adults. This was a family who learned to allow Jesus to heal them, fill them, and flow through their lives even when pain occurred.

There are real psychological and physicolgocial things that occur in a moment when you lose something. Even if it is as simple as misplacing an item like your phone or your wallet. The “fight or flight” mode that our bodies rush into immediately cause us to deplete certain hormones in our bodies. Amplify the response by losing sight of your child in a crowd or losing a large research paper as it suddenly disappears into the oblivion of your computer, and your body reacts strongly. When we experience loss, our bodies need to refuel and recharge. This is why it is so important to turn to the Lord in our suffering. Loss in our lives will always create a need to be filled and God desires that we be filled with the right things.

Heaven’s perspective on lostness starts in creation when God, the Father lost continual fellowship with man. Then He gave His son so that we wouldn’t be lost. The Son sacrificed His blameless life so that we wouldn’t be lost. The Holy Spirit was then poured out so that we could be filled and continually filled while on this earth. This “infilling” of the Spirit is to bring us to revelation of who the Father and the Son are and empower us to be victorious in this life. This does not mean that death and destruction won’t effect our lives, but it does mean in the face of loss, we can overcome and be filled. When we have hurt over a loss, that gives us an opportunity to know how great His love really is. Jesus said in John 4:23-24 says, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” This was affirmation that one day, we as lost people would know truth to worship God fully by. This is why worshipping Him can be so powerful! We can get lost in worshipping Him and receiving His love and restoration of all things lost.

My prayer for you today would be that you would see the lostness in your life as an opportunity to turn to Jesus. That if you know you aren’t right with Him, you’d see a hope to the separation you feel from the love of God. If you are living for Him, I pray that through the hurt of the loss in your life that you could experience the fullness of how great His love really is.

If you didn’t read Part 1 of “Lostness” and my testimony, please scroll down. Friday will be on the Lostness around us.