Mary lost a shoe the other day, a dance shoe for an upcoming performance.
We prayed and looked, searched and beseeched, to no avail. Mary headed off to ballet frantic, as distraught as only a 13-year-old girl can be. I fervently hoped the shoe was at the ballet studio. If it wasn’t, we’d have to buy a new pair.
This happened in the midst of a too-busy day, half a week before payday at the end of a very tight month. I looked heavenward and moaned, Really, God? A lost shoe?
A while later Mary called to say the lost and found box was empty. Arrrgh! I had to cancel plans with a friend, rush downtown and buy and deliver shoes before rehearsal with the fierce Russian ballet mistress began.
“Gotta go replace a lost shoe. Sorry to miss the event,” I texted my friend Liz.
“Ugh,” she texted back, “Hate that stuff.”
“Yeah, but Mary hardly ever loses things,” I tapped into my phone, the beginnings of a smile forming as I realized the truth in my words.
“And she earns all her own pocket money. She’s usually a responsible kid.”
“Good attitude, friend,” Liz texted. “I’ve always admired your ability to find the silver lining!”
“Eh,” I replied, “I think of it as finding a more accurate perspective than my initial reaction!”
And y’know, it’s true: Our first reactions are only part of the story. They’re usually a small part, a distorted part, a part that points us away from God instead of toward Him. Fixating on those is like reading the first three verses of Psalm 69 and thinking that’s all there is.
To draw closer to the Lord we have to look at the whole story. The beleaguered author of Psalm 69 is a good example of how we’re supposed to handle woe. He shows us that even when things are rough, faith is about more than venting to God.
“I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving,” he writes (Psalm 69:30). And in the end, that matters more than anything else.
