Suffering Loss

One of the inevitabilities of life is the suffering of loss. No one can escape it. It is universal. Known to all men.
We have all lost moments we wish we could redeem. There have been moments when we could have said the right thing but remained silent. There have been moments when we could have said the right thing and said the very wrong thing. We have lost opportunities to help, to give what was needed--and we had it to give, opportunities to act in defense of others when they desperately needed our help to withstand the lies being cast about them. Our lives are littered with moments lost.
We have lost at times our integrity. We have lived days or months or possibly even years in contradiction to the life we know God desires of His children. We have at times lived our spiritual life in hopes of gaining the applause of men. We have at times lived our lives in opposition to what we ourselves were encouraging others to do. And we have even judged them for their failures, when we ourselves were failing miserably--and deliberately. There are times in our lives that cried out for one man or woman of integrity--and we chose not to be that man or woman. Integrity--lost.
We have lost times and places that we hold dear to our hearts. Some of us remember times when you could leave you doors unlocked without a shred of fear. We can remember neighborhoods where everyone knew everyone else--and cared and watched out for those they knew. A face of a stranger was instantly recognized by everyone on the block. We can remember homes filled with memories shared together with people we loved--memories good and bad but all of them made good because they were shared. There are rooms in this world that we knew as home that we will never walk in again. There are yards filled with flowers and trees that we knew--perhaps planted--where we will never set foot again. They are lost to us, and we at times miss them dearly.
We have lost friends, friends who were at one time an integral part of our lives. We shared their laughter, their tears, their likes and dislikes, everything about them. In fact, we are sure that they are still somewhere in this world sharing those very same things with others, things that they freely and lovingly once shared with us and we with them. But we have no idea where they are; we are sure that we have lost them for the remainder of this life we live on earth.
We have lost people that we love by their deliberate choice as well. For whatever reason they have deemed our love for them irrelevant. They have chosen to not love us or to love us on their terms, terms that make the love between us seem to be of little value and low priority. We have been relegated to a position unworthy of their love, respect, and presence. They have chosen to become lost to us.
We have lost people to death as well. They have preceded us home to glory, and though we rest and rejoice in their heavenly joy, we miss them here on earth. They are lost to us for now. They have left empty places in our lives that only they could fill. Events, words, places, remind us of our loss, at times when we least expect it. And we feel the loss of their presence.
So, how are we to handle all this loss? The older we get the more loss we will have. What can we do about it?
The first thing we must do is trust the losses into the hands of the great God of faithfulness. Even at those times that we have been faithless, He has been faithfully at work. All our blunders and willful disobedience will not stop Him from doing what is good and righteous and loving--not only for us but also for those we have failed. All things will work together for good. And if we have by our choices left someone in the worst of circumstances, they can still choose to be a Daniel, choose to be a Joseph, choose to be an Esther. We must trust Him with our yesterdays.
We must also cling to a heart of gratitude. Those things, places, times, and even people that we have loved and lost were a gift from Him. How much greater would be our loss if He had not given to us such gifts of love? How great a treasure are the things that we have lost that He has placed into the memories of our lives? We can embrace the loss with unending expressions of thanksgiving to the wise, loving God who gave us such a life of blessing, a life of overflowing cups and food-filled banquet tables. We can make the losses a source of thankful joy.
We must also hold fast to our love. People can take their love from us, but they must not quench our love for them. We must on our knees commend them to the care and love of our Savior--and theirs. We must plead with God to bring them into a right relationship with Him regardless of their relationship with us. Him they need. Us they can get by without--if they have Him. Our love for those who have chosen to not love us at all or merely love us less than we desire can be as unconditional as His love for us has always been, even in our times of coldness toward Him--the world's greatest Lover.
And we must redeem the present. We must ask God to embolden us and encourage us to never lose another moment. We must ask Him to give us the understanding we need to say the right thing at the right time, to do the right thing at the right time, to be the Christ-like witness He has left us in the world to be. We must hold precious each moment; redeem the times because the days are evil.

And we must rest in that which we cannot lose.

"Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

"I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am, there you may be also."

I will never, no never, not even for a moment, for all eternity, leave you or forsake you."

When you absent your body, you will find yourself with Me, in My presence forever. I have given to you eternal life, and no one can ever take you out of My hands. And My hands are clasped by the hands of your heavenly Father."

All the loss in the world cannot compare to the Lover you can never lose