Blog 2209 – 11.04.2021

Feeling A Little Lost?

Ever notice that even familiar places can sometimes seem strangle. Sometimes all it takes is a change of light or seeing thing from a slightly different angle to make us feel a little lost? Our fast and troubled world can sometimes make us feel a little disconnected or lost. The song I’ve Got Rhythm was written for the movie Girl Crazy by George Gershwin in 1930. Many have sung it and recorded it over the ninety one years it has been around.

I recall a version that came out when I was in my teens that opened with the lines:

“In this fast and troubled world,

We sometimes lose our way

But I am never lost, I feel this way because

I’ve got rhythm… (Cue the music)”

We all have a metronome in our chests that helps us keep the rhythm. The pulsing beat harmonizes with our breath and soon we are tapping our feet, snapping our fingers, nodding our heads, and clapping our hands to the beat. It was a young Sonny and Cher in an early duet who vocalized, “The Beat Goes On.”

We are never truly lost though at times I suppose we have all felt a little bewildered or misplaced. We have only to concentrate on our beating heart and our breathing in and out to remind ourselves of Who and Whose we are.

Almost fifty-one years ago I took my first plane ride, two short thirty minute flights actually, one from Augusta, Georgia to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Chattanooga. I was coming home from Fort Gordon, Georgia on a two week leave before reporting to Oakland Army Depot across the bay from San Francisco for my overseas assignment to South Vietnam where I spent most of my last year as a teenager.

At the end of my two week leave at home with loved ones, I took two considerably longer flights, one to San Francisco then a bewildering three days later another even longer one from Travis Air Force Base in California to Saigon Vietnam with short fuel stops in Honolulu, Hawaii, Guam, and Okinawa. There were a few moments on each of those four flights and during those three days in between when I confess that I felt a little bewildered and misplaced specifically on that longer flight over the Pacific Ocean. I recall on the long plane ride humming over and over a song I had heard in church many times as a boy and recalling the comforting lyrics:

“Whether I live or die

Whether I wake or sleep

Whether upon the land

Or on the stormy deep,

I shall not be afraid.

I am the Lord’s I know?”

Who is the Lord of Glory?

The prophet Moses once ran away into the wildness and tried to lose himself running from a mission that he was born to complete. The Lord of Glory got his attention in a burning Bush that would not burn up and set him back on track. The voice said, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Let my people go.” After making excuses and trying to get out of the task Moses finally agreed to go but asked, “Whom shall I say is sending me?” And the Lord of Glory replied, “I am.”

Next time you see a burning bush or more practically a mirror, look closely and ask the question, “Who is the Lord of Glory?” Look deeply into those eyes looking back at you and hear in your heart of hearts a voice you will recognize as your own saying, “I am.”

Whenever you are feeling lost whether upon the land, or on or above the stormy deep, awake or asleep, remember Who and Whose you are and that you are never lost, nor does anyone of us ever walk alone.

You friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lk9b4ofvUqDHkgkT06vb4j4tfabX36SS/view?usp=drivesdk

You’ll Never Walk Alone