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Spiritual Beliefs
Saturday morning I discovered that my cell phone was missing. After doing a thorough search of the car and the house I began to accept the only conclusion that made sense: I had most likely lost my cell phone somewhere at the football game the night before. I began to think about all of the phone numbers that I would have to re-enter into a new phone and I have to admit it was a bit depressing. I tried calling my phone but no one answered. Saturday was the day of the Fall Festival in Jackson and my wife and I made our way by foot to downtown Jackson (we live only a few blocks from downtown). Halfway there, however, I told my wife that I couldn't enjoy the day without going back and looking one more time for my phone. On the way back home I began to pray that God would help me find it. As I entered the house our regular phone was ringing. I quickly answered it but was disappointed to hear a recorded political solicitation for my vote. I then decided to call my cell phone one more time and leave a voice message in hopes that someone would find it, listen to the message and call me. To my surprise a lady answered and immediately said that she was not the owner of the phone and indicated that it apparently had been lost. I told her who I was and that I had lost the phone. I asked her if it was found in Jemison and she said, "Yes, it was found in the parking lot of the football stadium." Someone found it, turned it over to a boosters club member and they turned it over to her. Her name was Margo Gibson and she is the principal of Jemison High School. Ms. Gibson was very nice and we had an interesting conversation. In our conversation it came up that I was a licensed minister through the United Methodist Church and she said that she was a Methodist as well. She was on the way to Birmingham with her grandmother who was celebrating her 87th birthday. Ms. Gibson stopped along the interstate to take down my address and she said she would mail it to me on Monday. I was thrilled and offered to send her postage and a reward for any of the persons involved in finding and returning the phone. Ms. Gibson responded by saying that, "One doesn't expect a reward for doing the right thing." We wished each other a blessed day and I hurried off to now have a very enjoyable day at the Fall Festival. I ran into a number of people who I shared my story with. The thing that I felt led to share with people was that so often we look for the "big miracles" in life and overlook the "small miracles" that happen all around us. In the sixth chapter of Daniel we find the story of a man who experienced a big miracle. He was given a choice to worship God or worship the king. Daniel chose to do the right thing and continue to openly worship the one true God. As a consequence he was thrown into a den of hungry lions. God performed a miracle by shutting the mouths of the lions and Daniel emerged without a scratch. That doesn't make sense, until you realize that God was watching over the entire situation, and God was using these circumstances ultimately to glorify His name. Because of what happened, people all over the kingdom learned about the God of Daniel. We need to remember that God is watching over the entire situation of our lives too. Maybe the people I shared my story with needed to hear it. Maybe I needed to be reminded that God is a God of miracles, both big and small. Either way, God was glorified. But what is Daniel's real lesson for us? Is it that God will always save us from the hungry lions or always help us find our lost cell phones? I don't think so. History has not shown that to be true. However, Daniel's lesson and our lesson is not a promise that God will always intervene, only that He can. We don't know when or why. The real lesson is that we must do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. God is watching us whether anyone else is or not. And God is watching over us in all situations. Lions' dens will come to us, some more dangerous than others, but they do not have to define us and they do not have to defeat us. We may or may not walk out unscratched and unscathed, but we can face the lions in the power and presence of God.
Sometimes we look for and find the big miracles in life but let's not become so focused on looking for the big miracles that we overlook the small ones all around us. My lost phone survived being run over in a crowded parking lot and was found by responsible people who chose to do the right thing. Losing my cell phone was no big deal for anyone but me but we need to remember that if anything is important to us it is important to God. As Ms. Gibson said, we should not expect a reward in this life for doing the "right thing". Our reward will come on the other side of eternity.
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