Few times do I awake and put on my glasses as soon as I get up. Most of the time I get up, I eat, I work out maybe even go to the bathroom. I know that I can rely upon my extra eyes being right there on the night stand. That knowledge is accurate 99% of the time. Sunday was in the 1%.
We were going to meet old friends after church that were coming in from out of town to visit the college and have lunch with us. That knowledge was in my head and heart as I rummaged around the house doing my usual Sunday morning routine. I’m always up first on a Sunday. Truth is I’m always up first every day of the week unless I’m ill. I had my time of reading scripture and prayer. I had a time of stretching and breakfast. I took the time as usual to make my wife her hot cup of herbal tea. We then spent several minutes talking about not much of anything. That’s kind of a morning ritual of ours. It bonds us together as we awake and focuses us on the day ahead together.
The kids needed to get up so our time together needed to come to a close. I woke our son and daughter. Breakfast was next and fixed it for Andrew. Abby staggered to the bathroom for a shower. She usually eats later and only has toast and some yogurt. As they finished I began getting ready for worship…I got changed and dressed. Usually I then walk to the night stand and put on my glasses. This time I waked to the night stand but no glasses. My first reaction was to look underneath all the reading material on the stand. Next was to look all around the base of the stand and the bed in case the glasses fell. I then started to look in other normal places throughout the house.
I felt a rising sense of anxiety as I realized that without glasses I can’t legally drive to church and meeting our friends would be more difficult and therefore more stressful. My mind went to the “who can I blame?” mode. Frustration and anger began to rise…a sense of helplessness ensued. Then something happened…Inspiration happened. It was as if God got my attention. I just knew the glasses were in the house and all I needed to do was relax and walk forward with my eyes and heart open. In this new internal reality I walked again the same steps I had taken only ten minutes earlier. Within a minute I had found the glasses. I had looked in the exact same place earlier but did not find them. This time in a relaxed and peace-filled state it was no challenge to find what was lost.
Upon finding the glasses the three parables of lost things out of the Gospel according to Luke (in the New Testament of the Bible) came to mind. The thought of a lost sheep (one out of a hundred) never seemed very exciting to me nor did a coin (one of ten) I did kind of got the son part but still he had earlier said in not so many words to his father to drop dead. I began to understand through my prodigal glasses that stress comes when we want control and don’t have it. That stress only gets worse until we do something nonsensical…let go of trying to have control. I did not get peace because I found my glasses. I found my glasses because I decided to have peace and therefore let go of stress.
It is amazing what some of the smallest and most mundane things of life can teach if we will only open our eyes and our hearts. Like the shepherd who found 1% of his flock or the woman who found 10% of her wealth or the father who received back 50% of his children I was filled with joy that what had been lost was found.