Open For Business

A mysterious stranger arrived at a New England seaport town from somewhere across the ocean. He opened an office with a sign that simply read, "Recovery of Lost Things." At first, no one entered the stranger's office, but everyone was curious.

The stranger put an ad in the paper to further explain his business, "I will help you find anything you have lost." The explanation did not satisfy all.

"So he's a detective?" asked one villager. His question received only shrugs of uncertainty.

Yet, the explanation was enough for a woman who had lost a great deal of money. She slipped into the stranger's office under cover of night. A few nights later, another person asked for the stranger's help because he had lost his great-grandfather's Bible.

Eventually, many of the villagers felt drawn to this stranger. The more comfortable they felt with him, the more they truly opened up to him about other "things" they had lost. An aging lady with wrinkles and sadness wept before the stranger, yearning to recover the beauty of her younger days. A young man of barely twenty was filled with regret and asked the stranger if he could help him get his innocence back.

After a few weeks, the stranger sat in his office late one night with a list of grand requests:
1. Bring back opportunities that were missed.
2. Restore tarnished reputations.
3. Replace sadness with joy forfeited long ago.
4. Renew relationships destroyed by selfishness, hatred, pride, and greed.
5. Resurrect loved ones buried both recently and long ago. Many asked only for one final moment to express feelings of love, or to apologize for things said or things not said.
6. Return the accolades, fame, popularity and praise of years past that has now faded and been replaced with continual silence.
7. Remove the effects of aging, smoking, drinking, and hard living and restore health, fitness, and vibrance.
8. Replace bitterness, emptiness, loneliness, and callousness with love, joy, forgiveness, and peace.

The stranger shook his head in disbelief. He only meant to help others find lost luggage, cargo, or other tangible items left behind on nearby ships. Yet, just as these hurting souls felt drawn to him to express the loss of their truest valuables, he felt the depth of their pain, listened to their requests without clarifying his intentions, and assured each one, "I will do everything I can."

He became a praying man, a compassionate man, a broken man, and a man of great understanding concerning the importance of valuing relationships and redeeming the time.

These requests were neither returned nor recovered by the mysterious man. But at least the longing of each visitor to his office was addressed. At least the pain was confessed. At least someone listened. Someone cared.

What each villager did not know was the trail of pain and heartache from which this stranger from across the ocean had fled. He came to their village to escape. Each of their longings reflected the longings of his own heart. His wife had died giving birth to their first child. The child followed his mother into eternity an hour behind her. He dealt with the pain of his loss with great anger and drunkenness. He boarded a ship with his few possessions in hopes of getting away from the painful memories. Upon arrival at the village, the ship's crew could not find some of the belongings he had stored below deck.

As the weeks turned into years, many who had once visited his office met him along the sidewalk or in the market. They met him with smiles, hugs, handshakes, and expressions of gratitude. With renewed hope and lifted spirits, they thanked him for all he had done. What had he done?

Only what each of us can do for one another. He gave them permission to grieve, promised to get involved, and prayed on behalf of their woundings. He did so unwittingly. We can do so intentionally. In helping others with their wounds, he found healing for his own.

This morning, let's go into business together. You grab a hammer and a nail. I'll hold the shingle above our business door that says, "Recovery of Lost Things."

Perry Crisp

Due Date with Disney

My first trip to Disney World was not all that spectacular. I've seen pictures but I don't recall a thing about it. My older siblings sure seemed to have had a good time, though. Lynn and Mark had bright smiles and eager anticipation written all over their faces...according to the polaroid snapshots.

I didn't have much to smile about. From the looks of things, I only got to ride one ride over and over again. We might as well have stayed home, as far as I was concerned. Disney World was, to me, no different from anywhere else I'd ever been. Wherever my mother went, I had to go. I didn't have a choice. I was still in the womb.

Oh well. At least I got in free!

Church is like that for a lost person to some degree. The only difference is, I was alive. Lost people are spiritually dead.

Yet, neither of us could connect with our surroundings. I couldn't feel what my brother and sister felt, taste what they tasted, or see what they saw. I was there, but I was barricaded and surrounded by a bubble of flesh that kept me cut off from all that they were experiencing.

The man or woman who does not have a living relationship with Jesus feels the same way in a church that's alive. He or she won't feel what the brothers and sisters feel. Nor can they taste and see what surrounds them because they, too, are surrounded by a bubble of flesh that keeps them cut off and detached from what is going on around them spiritually.

Interesting paradox. Because I was inside my mom, the physical world was dead to me. Yet when Jesus lives inside us, the spiritual world comes alive to us! And we get in free!

I went back to Disney World nearly nine years ago. It was a very different experience for me than the one I had 37 years earlier. I was in the same place. But this time, I had been born. I was no longer trapped inside a cocoon of flesh.

The same thing happens to a person who is born again and goes back to the same church he or she went to before. A new spiritual awakening occurs when the flesh gives way to the Spirit.

Jesus said, "You must be born again" because "that which is born of flesh is (only) flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (a new reality that cannot be known in the flesh alone)" (John 3:6-7, parenthesis mine).

By the way, I compared pictures of my second trip to Disney World with pictures from my first trip. My smile is much more noticeable.

There's a picture of me with Goofy but you can't tell which one's which...
Perry Crisp