My Blue Towel

Recently, I was playing in a golf tournament with my nephew at Anthem Country Club in Henderson, Nevada. We were in golfer bliss as we played the course in the hot Nevada sunshine. Then, on the second or third round, I had something incredulous happen to me. It was a little thing that represented a much bigger thing. We had just parked the cart and were chatting with one of the staff at a booth. As we chatted, I noticed he grabbed a blue towel off the counter and threw it in the garbage. Immediately I thought to myself, “that looks exactly like my blue Dodgers golf towel.” I scurried to check my golf bag and sure enough my towel was missing. I asked the staff to pull it out of the garbage and to my great surprise it was my beloved towel. It even had a dirt stain from when I used it last. Now, you may be thinking, “what is so incredulous about that? You got your little twenty dollar towel back and you could have easily replaced it.” It’s not like it was even sentimental or anything. It was just a blue towel that belonged to me. What was incredulous were the odds. What were the odds that I lost my towel sometime during a four and one half hour round, somewhere on the course near any hole, completely unaware, to end up at the booth where the staff worked, arriving whenever, who happened to have picked up the towel and threw it away in front of me at the exact moment I was standing in front of him, a grand total of perhaps three minutes and that I would see it, recognize it and retrieve it. Incredulous and obviously a blessing from God. You couldn’t line up enough events to make that transpire so perfectly. The lesson? Beyond the obvious message that God loves me and cares about me and my stuff, the lesson was that God is the One who takes care of me in minute detail and to make sure I didn’t miss the point, brought it to pass in a way that could have only come from Him. God’s calling card is often His timing. He cares that much that you and I can trust Him with our lives. If He was willing to go to such lengths for me to recover my Dodgers towel, what wouldn’t He do for you? What part of your life would benefit from His perfect timing with a perfect solution for your dilemma? What is something you lost long ago that you would like to get back? What portion of your life is missing and you didn’t even know it was taken from you? What is your blue towel?

If people knew what God was offering them, they would open both their arms and their hearts wide enough to receive it with overflowing joy and thankfulness. God is everything you ever wanted and everything you ever dreamed of. He is the missing piece of your life. He is the answer and the solution to everything that has ever gone dreadfully south on you. He never intended for you to struggle your way through life desperately trying to be your own sufficiency; trying to control what you cannot control; trying to figure it all out on your own. All He ever asked was that you seek Him and in seeking Him, find Him, the answer, your answer. What stops you from seeking Him is all that wrong stuff you have concluded about Him in your mind. You perceive that life with Him will be restrictive or difficult or full of rules for living, with you left desperately trying to please an angry and vengeful God. God isn’t interested in taking something from your life. Instead He is offering you something – life, real life. He is the originator of life and as such knows perfectly how life is best lived. He is offering you happiness and peace and blessings and to meet your every need as you would expect from a Father that loves His children. He is offering you a life where He is number One with you the blessed recipient. He will warm your heart as you find the lost towels in your life because He loves you so much.

There is no downside to a relationship with God. All you have to do is take what He is offering you. He already solved the sin problem everyone is so worried about, in the life of His son. He did for us that which we could have never done for ourselves. It was never really all about me and you. It was all about Him. It is all about who He is and what He will do for us if we ever take Him at His Word. He will do for you as well, in detailed, minute, precision ways that only He could do to meet your unique needs in a tender and very personal way. Don’t you see it? It’s not about blue towels. It’s about you and your heart. It’s about giving you what you have been missing. It is a return to enthusiasm for life full of love and joy and peace. That’s not to say all the challenges go away by any means. But, instead of fighting the challenges alone you will have His help, His guidance, His clarification, His illumination, His love. There simply is no better way to live than living the life God is offering you. I sure hope you heard me and find what you have been missing. It’s only a question away. By the way, I am now keeping my Dodger’s towel forever…

Just some good thoughts…