Reading
Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:11-13 (NLT)
Reflection
In Pastor Mark’s sermon, he mentioned the example of a golf course in Calcutta. The Royal Calcutta Golf Club, established in the nineteenth century, encountered a persistent problem—monkeys taking the golf balls and throwing them around. They tried all kinds of measures to fix the issue: building fences, luring the monkeys away with food, and even relocating them. Nothing helped. Eventually, they posted a surprising sign that read, “Play the ball where the monkey drops it.”
Our society often pushes the idea of taking control. Yet such a perspective doesn’t account for the countless things in life over which we have little or no control. If being in control is our goal, we’ll soon be frustrated at best—or approach the brink of despair at worst. We can choose a different way: the path of accepting the reality of our circumstances and then doing the best we can within them.
Some might think this is a timid form of acquiescence disguised as tranquility, but I see it differently. It’s a matter of choosing boldness while maintaining humility. It’s bold to keep going when life tosses us surprises and challenges. It’s humble to admit that we make it through only by relying on God’s power and love. When we choose to continue the journey day after day, we soon find that we have become different—because those faithful choices are changing us for the better. Such transformation is nothing short of miraculous.
Sharon Wegscheider Cruse writes in Another Chance: Hope and Health for the Alcoholic Family:
“When we learn to let go of our control and accept the happenings of our lives, we can recognize the miracles. We can accept ourselves as growing, recovering people who can see what miracles we all are… To recognize the miracles that we all are is to begin or continue the journey of recovery… to move from being a victim to being a survivor and then to being a celebrator.”
Perhaps we can identify with the golfers at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club as they search for their missing ball, find it, and then adapt to playing from a different position than expected. Maybe we even feel like the ball itself sometimes—dropped unexpectedly into deep grass, though just a moment ago we were resting in the middle of the fairway. Yet even in deep grass, we are still sought by the caring eyes of God. And make no mistake: God won’t give up until we are found.
Perhaps, then, it’s not so much that I am found, as if life is static. It’s more that I’m being found—day after day, one day at a time.
Prayer:
Loving God, you never give up on me. You seek me out and search within me, transforming me into who you want me to be. Help me accept myself as a miracle—a testament to the wondrous and inexplicable things your love can do. Teach me to seek my true self and to welcome your miracles of grace, peace, and love just as they come. When strange and unexpected things occur and throw me for a loop, let me be found once again so that I might participate fully in the unfolding story of my life. Teach me to trust in you, no matter what circumstances I face. Amen.
