A Letter To My Lost And Found Friends

 A Letter To My Lost and Found Friends

Generations ago, when we walked with God and desperately wanted our friends to come too we’d say “come back home…” it was our plea. Raised in God’s house, we’d say we knew the way… generations later those of us that try to keep in step with God have a different plea.  

Raised in houses claiming God’s name but slaves to sin like pride and envy and idolatry we lost the way… now I grab my road-weary friends by the hand and my plea is “come home, forget what you know… it’s wrong. Come and meet the king for yourself…” and it hurts when you won’t admit how hungry you are… it hurts when you won’t be honest about what you do to numb the ache… the ache for love you were designed to receive but just can’t seem to find. It hurts me but it hurts Him more. 

Disconnected from His people He still seeks… but you turn to every single other thing… you think a new boyfriend will fill the hole, a new job, a new car, a new addiction, another vacation, another distraction… 

My lost friend, you are the mouse on the wheel running but never making progress… and it hurts. It hurts because sometimes that’s me too. When we grab hands and I say to you “let’s go home…” you’re gonna move faster than me sometimes, and sometimes I’ll get ahead of you and when I look back the song I’m singing is “I hope you go… I hope I see you there…” I hope you keep trying and pushing and seeking what’s real. 

I hope you know the only reason my feet are still on this road is because someone ahead of me is chanting my name, like a shot in the dark, asking God to hold me up and hell to leave me alone. Someone ahead of me is cutting their heels on rocks I can’t see and while they’re laboring to climb and struggling to breathe they’re thinking of me. That’s why I keep walking because I see my Father in that love and through it I can feel His fingertips reaching out for me. 

If I’m ahead of you it’s your name that fills my lungs and cry, it’s your name I meditate on as I walk… I mention you to God and he mentions you to me and sometimes I talk to you and this is my plea… 

There is fullness and joy, he gives hope and peace. His will towards you is good and he longs for you to be free. He is willing your liberation with every word He speaks, all of creation is shining, spinning and singing so you’ll see… existence outside of His will is the reason for the pain and emptiness inside of you… but it’s love he longs to give and you’ve decided it’s law. It’s not going well doing it your way. The weight of having all the answers cannot possibly rest on your shoulders… you didn’t create you, you cannot fulfill you. 

You can cry out to all the other Gods of this world but none will answer back… 

Today I’m still walking and I’ve got enough hope to commit to keep going for now but you’ll see me fall, you’ll see me turn back… and you’ll be so far ahead of me that in the distance you won’t be able to see who it is that comes and sits on the side of the road by me. You’ll wonder how he knows me and why he’s so kind, you’ll wonder who could be intimate enough with me to take my hands and pull me into his arms and I pray you look away when I scream at Him at the top of lungs “I’m exhausted, I’m empty.. I cannot go on…” but when you do look back you’ll see a man carrying me and continuing on… 

What I want you to know, what I want you to see so so clearly is that I am walking, my legs are moving and there is dirt on my feet but really and truly it is Him that has always been carrying me. He has bolstered my soul when pain and loss drove me to the ground… and if you let him he’s strong enough to do it for you too.

He loves you.

And so do I.

-Miranda