Blog #8 Mission Accomplished

“You dropped your cell phone!!!!”

Those words rang out clearly from a man sitting behind me in a chair. A chair lift, to be exact. While floating 30 feet above ground, my phone slipped out of my (unzipped) coat pocket and shot like a bullet through several feet of snow below. The man tried to describe where it was next to "pole #4." My husband, an experienced skier, was the only one capable of skiing to where the phone lie, so he raced off the lift and down the mountain.

In a perfect world, my phone would have left a nice, rectangular hole in the midst of a smooth, white mound of snow. But it had been snowing like the dickens that morning and that hole had quickly been filled. But for 30 minutes he gave it a valiant effort and dug holes all around “pole #4.” No luck. The phrase “a needle in a haystack” was unfortunately very fitting. Disappointment settled in.

Fast forward several hours.

At lunch my husband opened his “find my iPhone” app and, for kicks, tried to find mine. Surprisingly, my phone registered on the screen! He grabbed his skis and his brother and headed back to the mountain. The app quickly turned into a treasure map, leading them to find the “X” and subsequent buried treasure! They raced to the designated spot and dug a hole all the way to the ground.

No phone. Hopes were dashed.

Then came an idea. His brother put his head deep in the hole and my husband activated the feature that alerts my phone to “ping.”

“I think I hear it!!”

After a few more pings, they dug a little further to the side and BINGO! There it was. Hooping, hollering and high fives ensued. An amazingly difficult mission had been accomplished.

A mission accomplished comes in a variety of forms. A goal reached. A fear faced. A habit broken. A sickness beat. And the only way to cross any finish line is to walk the path of perseverance. And that path is paved with all the same milestones. It starts with the desire for something to be found, achieved, changed or healed. And then in no particular order there is a series of:

Attempts

Failures

More attempts

Disappointments

More attempts (maybe involving friends for support)

Glimmers of hope

Hopes dashed

More attempts

And eventually success.

But we don’t always see success. Why? We often give up somewhere in one of our attempts. We assume the mission just can’t be accomplished. It is too hard. Too much work. Failure abounds. Energy is spent. Humiliation is high and motivation is low.

And we give up.

Now, I am assuming by this point, there is an issue that is in the forefront of your mind. Something you long to experience, have or see happen. So, let me go ahead and be clear about this. I am not telling you to buck up and keep making attempts. Eventually it will pan out. Success is on the way! Instead, I want to encourage you to do something different.

To give up.

For two reasons. One, some things are not worth pining after and deep down you know it. Two, God wants you to stop doing the mission by yourself and let Him join you. He wants to show you and those around you that He is real and relevant. He is not a symbolic person that we think about at Christmas and Easter. He provides real patience, real courage and real endurance during real moments in our very real lives.

In the end, your “buried treasure” may not look like what you expected, but you will know when you have found it. And what a day of celebration that will be.

Mission accomplished!

Be Intentional

What is the real thing you need for that real situation in your life? Identify it and take a moment to ask specifically for it. Give Him the opportunity to be relevant today.

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