Are We Looking in the Right Place?

I shouldn't have answered the phone. That left me ten minutes to drive 

across town for an appointment. Doable but first I had to find my cell. 
Did I leave it upstairs? downstairs? In the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom? No. Without a minute to spare I called myself from the home phone, 
hoping I'd turned on the ringer.

The faint musical ringtone led me to the laundry room. Oh yeah, I remembered starting a load of laundry that morning and setting it on 
the dryer. 

As with my cell phone, we find things easier when we know where to look. 

That's even more true of spiritual treasures.

Several women thought they knew where to find the Lord after the 
soldiers crucified him. As they walked toward the tomb they wondered, 

"Who will roll away the stone for us?" But they found the stone moved 
aside and the tomb empty. Astonished and perplexed, they didn't know 
where else to look for Jesus. 

"Why do you look for the living among the dead?" the angels asked. 

Two days earlier the women watched Roman soldiers crucify Jesus. They 
saw them pull His dead body from the cross and seal it in the tomb. Yet 
they didn't realize Jesus rose to resurrection life early that morning. 
     
       And everything changed when that happened.        

       We tend to look for the living among the dead too. 

Reading through Romans I remember, oh yeah, the day I accepted Jesus, 
I died to sin and became a new person by God's grace. The discouraged, selfish, failure died. Each day Jesus beckons me to step out of the 
tomb's shadows and walk new paths with Him. (Romans 6:4) 

"Get a life" is an outdated term but something we still pursue. We hope
our efforts and accomplishments will warrant an approving nod from 
others. But as we look in wrong places and wander down wrong paths,
we grow weary.

The Lord reminds us we've become new in Him. We're no longer bound 
or beholden to the self-defeating loser we were apart from Him. (Every
one who rejects Jesus is a loser regardless what they attain in this life.)   
      
Whether we're searching for car keys, cell phones, or a misplaced life, 
it helps to know where to look. In Jesus we don't only find a life, we find
the abundant one He designed just for us.