Not too long ago, I was at my apartment one evening on my night off from work. Adam and I had just come in from having dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. I watched a little television before crashing in my bedroom. When it came time to go to bed, I looked around the chair and on the coffee table in front of me for my cell phone where I usually set it. It wasn't there. I checked in the kitchen to see if I happened to place it on the kitchen table. Not there either. I even went to my bedroom and checked my pants pockets, even though I knew it wasn't in my room or in my pants pockets.
Usually, when I can't find my cell phone, I use someone else's phone to call mine, hoping that it is on vibrate or the ringtone is loud enough for someone to hear it. I asked Adam if I could use his cell phone to call mine. You know the saying, "If it were a snake, it would bite you." Well, my phone didn't bite me, but it sure as heck startled me. When Adam and I called my cell phone, I instantly felt something vibrating against my stomach. Where was my cell phone? In the front pocket of my hoodie sweatshirt. It was with me all along.
Sometimes we have customers come to the Diary Dairy and tell us that they're looking for something - a true friend who really loves them, real love from their parents, an answer to a question, or they even say they're looking for God or an answer from God. They look in all kinds of places for those things. At times, they even look in places where they know they're not going to find what it is they're looking for, but they do so anyway.
After talking through their problems and hearing what they're searching for, a lot of times they think things through, all to find that they do have true friends, or that their parents really do love them (even if it's not in the way that they may want them to).
Whenever someone says they're searching for God or longing to feel God's presence, it's not usually until they stop looking, start praying (like calling the cell phone), and call upon God, all to find out that He never left them. God was with them the whole time, just waiting for them to call upon Him.
If you are feeling unloved or like God is nowhere to be found and you've been searching for a long time, I would encourage you to put your searches on pause and search deep into your heart and ask yourself if you really do lack those things, or if you just happen to have friends all around you. I know it may not seem like it sometimes.
There may be days when it feel like the whole world is against you. I think it's safe to say that we all have those days, including me. What I've come to realize is that we are NEVER alone. I have such a strong support system in Melissa, Adam, Jay, and the rest of the Diary Dairy crew. We may get into conflicts sometimes, but in time, our hearts heal and we come out of the conflicts still friends. Just because a conflict arises, doesn't mean a friendship has to end. It's still there, even if you don't see it, just like my phone.
Most important, you are NEVER EVER fully alone as long as you have God in your heart. God will never leave you or abandon you. He loves you too much to do such a thing. Whenever you find yourself looking for His love or searching to hear something from Him, I encourage you to stop looking, start praying, and call upon Him, and I guarantee you that God will show you that He never left you. He was with you the whole time, just waiting for you to call upon Him.
-Shane Larson
