Have you ever been somewhere unfamiliar only to discover you were lost? No phone, no map, alone, in the dark, just about out of gas, hungry, tired, and cold because it’s snowing all around and the temperature is hovering at about 10 degrees? Now what? How do you handle it?
You didn’t mean to lose your way, did you? In fact, it was just a moment or two ago that you thought you knew where you were and you’d soon arrive at your destination. And then, before the cold air got you, a cold chill ran down your spine from the realization you were in a pickle.
OK, your lost, cold and hungry. Step One: I have no idea what step one is because I’m lost, I’m scared even though I don’t want to admit it, and there are some shady looking characters outside my window that I just know want to hurt me, or worse.
OK, back to Step One. Step One: get a grip. You’re lost; we’ve established that. Step Two: get help. Oh no, I’m not asking those people who don’t look like me for help. They will take everything I have, beat me to a pulp, and leave me for dead.
Wait. Back to Step Two. Ask for help. Otherwise, you might sit here in the cold and freeze to death. Your options are very limited. OK, OK, I got this. . .no you don’t; you’re a mess and you just don’t want to admit it.
Step Three: Listen to the help that is offered. Unh-uh, nope. I’m not getting out and going with those people. I’ll freeze alone, first. Wait, wait, wait. Step Three requires a clear head. Settle down and consider the help that has been offered.
Step Four: At this point, people who really seem to care about your welfare have offered assistance—take it. When you are in a mess, you can use all the help you can get. And sometimes, you have to look out beyond the immediate need and think about the future.
Step Five: When the nice people who offered to help take you to a safe place until morning, you get warm food and a place to crash, and then they help you dig your car out and get on your way—with goodies and a smile—be sure to say, “Thank you.”
I’ve been in that kind of situation more than once and it is a bit scary. But I want to tell you about another manner of losing your way, even though you’ve been following a good path for some time.
Almost every time, losing your way does not happen suddenly, it is a gradual thing. One day everything is fine and then, all-of-a-sudden, everything is messed up. Nope. It wasn’t all-of-a-sudden, it was a gradual series of events that led you to where you realized you were no longer in control. . .because you lost your way.
A couple of years ago, I was diagnosed as a diabetic, mild, yet I had arrived at that magic sugar number where you are diagnosed whether you like it or not. I tried to deny it, but the facts were all there in a neat logistical spreadsheet for my viewing pleasure. It’s kind of like driving down the highway in the middle of a sunny day, not paying attention to the map, oh, excuse me, the GPS, and your wife says, “You missed your turn.” You respond, “No I didn’t, I know what I’m doing.” Then, a few minutes later, you are backtracking while she just smiles in victory and without saying a word, you know she is thinking, “ITYS.” I don’t even want to spell it out.
My mind is extremely analytical, overly mathematical, and more than a little bent toward OCD. I couldn’t change my health by complaining. I had to do something. Immediately, prescription medication was ordered (I still don’t like it) and a dietary plan needed to be developed. Against my “better” judgment, a visit to a nutritionist was made, attended, and life-change began to happen.
It’s funny (not ha-ha funny—you know what I mean). You can call it fate if you like, dumb luck, whatever; the truth is, God sent me to a divine appointment with a young lady half my age who knew her stuff. At one point she dragged out a plastic plate with plastic food and showed my how to do portion control, choose the right carbs, proteins, ad nauseam. But she was right and I knew it. My problem was not diabetes, my problem was me.
Truly, I had no idea what was going on in my body. But elevated sugar levels along side thickening arteries, a failing heart valve, and having had multiple cancers, got my attention. So, I went to work and had great success lowering all the numbers that were high and, for the first time in my adult life, actually had low cholesterol.
All of that brings me to this past Sunday. My oldest granddaughter was college bound in a couple of days and the only time we could get together with the family was Sunday evening. Debbie, my wife, and I headed to the grocery store and bought a gallon of neapolitan ice cream, Oreos (and for goodness sake, an Oreo is two black cookies with white creamy stuff inside that’s about as thick as the cookies), and then we ordered three (3) large pizzas. We already had a beautiful banana bread that my sweet granddaughter had made.
So, the family arrived, we prayed, thanking God for all his goodness, and we dug in for the duration. I had 3, 4, or 5 slices, for the life of me I can’t remember—wink, wink, banana bread with all three flavors of ice cream, and about half a sleeve of Oreos with a glass of milk.
It got late, the family left, we cleaned up, and I was sick as a dog. What happened? Did I eat “a little to much?” Sunday night really didn’t have anything to do with it. Over the course of the last two or three months, I managed to lose my way. Add a little sugar here, add a little more there, ignore the warning signs as just indigestion and the increasing waistline as just a little gas.
Monday morning, after telling Debbie I wasn’t going to check my sugar on Sunday evening sort of as a joke, I got out the test strip, the finger pricker, and the monitoring device. 165. Now I was really scared. Never in my life has my sugar ever been that high. But anytime you face and face and face a situation, over and over, up and down, victory and defeat, the never-ending-circle, you sometimes just mindlessly give in to “enjoy life” all the while killing yourself from the inside out.
Food does it, drugs do it, social media does it, and on and on. But losing control does not mean the end of the world—unless you lose it and leave it lost. My postscript to this is that after 6 days of “teetotaling,” (no added sugar, no bread, no potatoes), my sugar is back under control, my focus on health is regained, and I’m off to the race of life once again with a smile and a thankful heart.
For anyone reading this who feels lost in the world, not because of some bad habit or the inability to follow a roadmap, but because you feel empty inside, you feel like you have no power to live life fully, or you just want to give up, I have one piece of advice. Don’t give up. Never look down on yourself, always look up for help, never give in to whatever hurts, and always be willing to give out to help someone else.
Whether you realize it or not, your perusing this missive is no accident. God put this on my heart to tell you that Jesus really does love you—so much, he died for you and defeated death to give you life. The theology I teach is really simple. Jesus SAVES. If I can help, let me know.
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