What I Learned When My Phone Was Stolen

          Last year I went to Africa. Johannesburg, South Africa, is known for its high crime rate. We also had a two day layover in Washington DC, another high crime area.

          I always made sure I had a firm grip on my clutch purse that held typical wallet contents as well as my brand new nice phone. And I made it around the world safely with my belongings. Nothing was stolen.

          Until I got home.

          We got back to the States at about 10 am on a Friday morning. After we drove back and had lunch with our family, it was about 1 or 2 pm and we didn’t want to make jet lag worse by sleeping the afternoon away and being awake all night. So my sister and I decided to take a nap for a couple hours and then go up to our church for our inner city children’s ministry which would be exhausting and go late into the night. That way, we would be awake until night.

          I left my clutch purse in a not-very-smart place, but I’d left it there for the past like two years and nothing ever happened.

          At the end of the night, I went back to get it and it was gone. I searched and searched for hours, but it didn’t turn up.

          It turned into a huge fiasco, and you could imagine how exhausted I was by that time. 

          Let me tell you, it is a strange feeling to not have a phone, wallet, purse, or money anywhere. Plus, I couldn’t drive now because my license was in my purse.

          Long story short, we miraculously were able to recover the phone, but nothing else was ever found. The 6^th grader who stole my phone claimed she never saw the purse.

          However, I went about two days without my phone.

          Okay, pause. Read that again.

          I went two days without my phone.

          And I’m not dead.

          Like, seriously.

         I survived.

          Yes, I’m being facetious. But when your phone is gone, the thoughts are flying through your head, “It’s gone. I’m dead. How will I text my friends?? How will I be able to keep track of how many steps I walk every day?? What about my Bible memory app? What about my Africa pictures??? What about Instagram??? Life isn’t possible without my phone!”

          I believe that we should not cling to our phones, but it happened to me when I wasn’t paying attention. Then my phone was gone, and with it a sense of security.

          Which is very, very silly.

          The other day I was gone all afternoon and forgot my phone at home. It was a weird feeling, but I kept having to remind myself, “I don’t NEED my phone. I can live without my phone for a few hours.”

          Throughout the mess with my stolen phone, I learned several things.

1. It’s just a thing. 

I can’t take my phone to heaven. Which means it’s probably not the most important thing ever. It’s just an item. Like a shoe. Or a pillow. Or a chair. You can get another one. Then again, you may not even need one.

2. There was a time that people lived without phones.

It is possible. You can live without your phone. People did it for thousands of years.

3. It could be a lot worse.

During that hectic weekend, the truths in the book The Insanity of God kept coming to mind. I had to be constantly reminding myself, “You know what? If a stolen phone and wallet is my worst problem, I am very blessed!” I want that to constantly be my perspective. People are being killed around the world for their faith. I can live without my phone.

4. It’s not about what happens to you, but how you respond to it.

Big and little things will come up in your day to day life. It’s not about what happens, it’s about your response. God is molding you and shaping you to be more like Him. He will use big and little trials. Pain and suffering will come. So don’t be surprised. Be prepared. It’s not about what happens, but how you handle it.

Do you feel like you are too attached to your phone? What are some indicators that you might cling to it too much? What are some possible remedies for that?

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3 Things I Learned From the Prophet Jeremiah

-Noami Hamstra

          I have been studying the book of Jeremiah recently, and today I wanted to share with you three things that I’ve learned from the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet of God who prophesied during the reign of king Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. He prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel and to the southern kingdom of Judah.

1. God is faithful
         

First, I learned so much about the faithfulness of God! Jeremiah was commanded to prophesy to the people of Israel and Judah. Both nations were rebellious and sinful. They worshiped the false gods of other nations. They rejected the Word of the Lord and did not obey God’s commandments. 
          God had made a covenant with the people of Israel and Judah: “And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly”(Genesis 17:2). The Lord was faithful in His covenant with His people, but His people broke their side of the covenant which was a serious offense. 
          God continually pleaded with His people to obey His Word. After the Lord punished His people through captivity and slavery, the Lord gathered them back to Himself, so that they would be His people and He would be their God. 
          I love how the Lord is continually faithful with His people even when they sin. We are just as faithless as Israel. But when we repent, the Lord faithfully leads us in the way of His righteousness.

2.  I must be obedient

          Secondly, I learned from Jeremiah to be obedient to God and confident in Christ. God commanded Jeremiah to be a prophet to the rebellious people. He said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations…But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, ‘I am only a youth; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 1:5-8 
          Jeremiah did not believe what the Lord told him would be the best for him, and he did not think he was equipped to do it. The Lord responded by saying He knew before Jeremiah was born that he would be a prophet. 
          Whatever the Lord tells us to do, we must do! We do not have to be afraid, because the Lord is with us and He knows us. He created us to serve and glorify Him in the way He ordains for us, and because of this, we can have confidence in Him.

3. I must be satisfied in Christ        

          The third thing I learned from the prophet Jeremiah is satisfaction in Christ. When the Lord brought His people back to Himself there was much rejoicing and thankfulness. They rejoiced with thankful hearts because they were in the Lord and did not need anything else! Jeremiah 30:17 says, “I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord.” 
          The Lord is good to His people, and the Lord says we can be satisfied in Him. When I think about how good the Lord is to me, I become even more grateful for what I have and for what He has done for me. When we know the Lord and have the gift of salvation, we have the best thing on this earth and for all eternity.

          When I first started reading and studying Jeremiah, I did not expect to learn as much as I did. I love how I can see the faithfulness and goodness of the Lord through Jeremiah’s life. The Lord is always faithful to His people. 
          I close with this verse from Psalm 13: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” This verse sums up the book of Jeremiah very well. 
          Being a prophet was not easy, but Jeremiah had to trust in the steadfast love of God, and when he did, he was able to rejoice in the salvation of the Lord. This is how I want to live, and I encourage you to trust in God’s steadfast love and rejoice in the gift of salvation He has given to you if you are in Christ.  

Have you read Jeremiah? What are your thoughts? Which of these points convicted you the most?

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4 Things I Had to Remember When They Didn’t Remember Me

My Memory:

It was a close game. It was hot and humid and I had not had a substitute for a while. My body ached with exhaustion, but adrenaline pushed me to keep running toward the Frisbee.

I’ve played a lot of Frisbee and a lot of people have commented on how surprisingly good my flick is for a girl. Every year, at a youth conference, my brother would put together a team for a very competitive Ultimate Frisbee tournament. This year, we were doing well. We had won two out of our three preliminary games and if we could win this one, we could get one of the best seeds in the tournament and possibly make it to the championship this year. We had gotten up to the semifinals last year.

The other team was ahead. I do not remember exactly what happened. I just know that this girl and I were closely guarding each other the whole game. Either they had the Frisbee and dropped it in the end-zone, or we had it and dropped it. Whatever happened, there was an instant shift in direction. I turned to run left as the other girl next to me turned to run right.

We hit heads.

I remember reeling back from the shock of the hit. I held my hand to my head for a moment until the pain lessened. When I turned, I watched the girl I’d collided with collapse to the ground.

From that point, there were medics everywhere. An ambulance was called. Everyone on the field stopped, knelt, and prayed for her for about half an hour.

I had a headache, but I figured that was normal for just hitting heads with someone. My aunt—a nurse—was asking me lots of questions to make sure I was okay. My sister was VERY attentive, and everyone on my team was very kind and considerate. I thought I was perfectly fine.

The other girl, however, I believe was taken to the ER and diagnosed with a minor concussion.

It wasn’t until 24 hours later, after no relief from terrible headaches, exhaustion, and uncontrollable emotional breakdowns, that it was discovered that I also had a minor concussion. Now, less serious than the other girl’s for sure. She even had to go home early.

For the rest of the week, I slept. Basically. Every waking moment was pained with a headache and severe exhaustion. The drive home was horrible. Especially since I was in a van with fourteen other people.

Everybody Else’s Memory:

I actually just saw a Facebook post from this youth conference about the girl who got a concussion when another girl (me) shouldered her in the head.

It became a big story from the week about how God worked in this other girl’s life through her concussion. It was posted all over social media, announced in the sessions. Everybody knew about this girl’s concussion and how she was hurt.

Except that it wasn’t my shoulder that hit her head. It was my head. And I got a concussion too.

But I didn’t get the media attention. Besides the people who interacted closely with me at that event, no one knew about my concussion.

It’s not a great feeling knowing that you were forgotten. Much less your PAIN was forgotten.

Some people want injuries because of the attention it gets them. One could say that I got all the down-sides of an injury without the up-sides.

When I read the Facebook post, it stung.

But, ultimately, I had to come to the conclusion that it really didn’t matter.

I had to remember several things:

1. It’s about your response

All sorts of terrible things will happen to me in life—this being on the low end of that scale. I am not responsible for what happens to me, but I am responsible to how I respond. This thing happened by accident and I was forgotten. If my response is to melt in self-pity, then I have sinned while they merely did not know all the information. 

2. Life doesn’t revolve around me

I am not the center of the universe. I think we’ve all heard our moms say tell us that. But they tell us because it’s true. I felt offended because the other girl got more attention than I from the same injury.

Getting our minds off of ourselves is a skill that we will never completely master, but something we should seek to accomplish because our Lord is selfless (Phil 2:3-4).

3. That other girl suffered more than me

Instead of moping because I didn’t get the attention, I should have looked to the other girl and been thankful that I wasn’t sent home. I should have been thankful that my concussion was less serious. After all, I was pretty miserable for about three weeks after it. She would have been miserable for longer than I.

4. In the end, it didn’t matter

Now, nearly a year later, does it really matter who got the attention? No. It doesn’t. So what do I accomplish by pitying myself?

Maybe some of you can relate to the self-pity that can take over your heart. Maybe you’ve had a similar experience.

But when I had this experience and had my sinful reaction, I had to repent and come away thinking, “It just doesn’t matter.”

If you think everyone has forgotten you, then look at the cross. If anyone should forget you, it’s the King of the Universe who’s watched innumerable people walk this earth. Yet He has never forgotten you or lost track of you. And this is why it doesn’t matter if someone else forgets you.

Have you ever felt overlooked or forgotten? How did you fight self-pity? Any thoughts or stories? Share in the comments!

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