Have you ever felt like your time was wasted? Whether it’s your own doing or the line at your favorite coffee shop is super long and you think to yourself, “what is taking so long?” But you keep your cool and wait anyway because you know once you get your order, you’ll be sipping on a nice frothy latte. Well, you’re already in your car, late for work, and the first sip you take of your drink, you figure out it’s the completely wrong order. Yuck! You feel like your time was wasted. For what? A drink that wasn’t even yours? In situations like these, my mind always ponders, “God, what possibly was the lesson here?” Is there a lesson at all? Maybe this scenario was totally out of your control like many scenarios we face in life. What about working relentlessly for something you really wanted, insert whatever you wanted really badly, and all that hard work seemed to not pay off, a health condition got in the way, or you made excuses and long story short, it didn’t happen. You can’t help but feel the very human feeling of “my time was wasted”. What else happens when we think our time is wasted? We think the time was lost! Technically, the time has passed but it is anything but lost.   

Thankfully, we serve a God that is really good at finding things. After all, He did make the universe. I’m sure an all knowing God knows where everything is. We were never misplaced. We are often the one’s trailing off into the woods. Throughout scripture God is referred to as a Redeemer. Father Abraham, the prophet Isaiah, and Job all foretell God to be this way. But, there’s been many times in my life where I’ve looked at past mistakes, or things that happened to me and thought, “how could this ever be redeemed?” With that mindset, I was certainly not living in the good news of my redemptive Father, even though I had been redeemed through Christ. Our salvation is secured but the renewal process, I believe, is ongoing. Like the famous hymn quotes, we were once lost and now we are found, the same can be applied to anything in your life that you feel is “lost”. A dream, a person, relationship, or even time! What was considered lost can be found in Him.

As a worship leader and singer/songwriter, I always write what I feel and write from experience. I wrote a song called “Found In You” about everything I am being found in God. The chorus says, 

“All my hope is found in You 

All my worth is found by knowing Your truth  

All my treasure found in You  

You know my every step 

I’m woven in the web of salvation”

Pre-Christ, my hope was lost and felt like a lot of time and dreams were gone with the wind. I didn’t have hope for my life the way God did but He had hope for me and my future. ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ (Jeremiah 29:11) My worth was completely dependent on what others thought of me or said about me which drifted with the ever changing ways of the world. Now my never-changing worth and value is found in Christ and always has been, but I wasn’t aware of that truth. “For you created my innermost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:13–14) My treasure had been abandoned like an old pirate movie and I was constantly searching and searching in all the wrong places. Luke 12:34 tells us, “where your treasure is your heart is also”. My heart was stone, my heart was in the world, my heart was previously dead and needed reviving.

The good surgeon, the One who made me, gifted me the greatest treasure; salvation. Now, woven in that unbreakable web, any security I thought I needed and sought after riches are in Him. He redeemed you and I, which means He also redeemed our baggage. To redeem means to get something back by paying a price. So God redeemed us by purchasing us with the cost of His perfect son Jesus who paid for our sins on the cross. This is good news! Redeeming news! Many of us keep holding on to our baggage that was never meant to be carried for so long. I’m truly surprised my biceps don’t show more because of all the heavy junk I trudged along for years, but it does explain an achy back and what was once an achy soul.  We desperately attempt holding the heavy weights when it was all meant to be laid as His feet. The bible tells us His yoke is easy and His burden is light. If you’re like me, you try to carry in every grocery bag into the house at the same time no matter how heavy they are even if your pinky is getting its blood supply cut off. This is a rare case where the good cannot outweigh the bad. You cannot firmly hold on to both Jesus and the world; it must be one or the other. You cannot fully follow freedom if you’re still following fear. You cannot carry peace if you’re latched on to worry. Hold both hands open and surrender it to God. Be ready to catch an abundance of redemption that has been waiting for your “yes”.

One of my favorite scriptures is Genesis 50:20, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” God intends to use your past for good. How could that possibly happen? What good could come from bad? God’s sovereign power is the only good that can right a wrong. It’s for His glory – not our own. It is so that lives can be saved. How beautiful the redemptive nature of God is. That He would take our rags and make them riches. “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28. We don’t always know that purpose but when our heart starts to align with His, we can almost be certain it is for the advancement of the Kingdom. The Father’s heart is always for His children.

So, just when you begin to think your time is being wasted, there’s always a bigger purpose and a bigger picture. A picture that is sometimes too big, too divine, too mysterious for us to see right away or see at all. Even the tried and tested Old Testament servant Job cries, “Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?” Even in the midst of suffering, grief, and questioning the circumstances happening around him, Job still declares, “Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him.” (Job 13:15) And later proclaims,“Yet my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth.” (Job 19:25)  

Is there anything in your life today that you desire to be reclaimed and redeemed in Christ? Your mind, your children, your finances? Whatever it is, it can be submitted under the feet of Christ and be found new in Him. Pray the prayer of psalmist David, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:12)

Allow the words of the final verse of “Found in You” to wash over you today,

“All my strength is found in You 

All my peace is found by living in You 

All my joy is found in You 

You know my every breath 

You never leave a heart that is broken.”

Nothing is wasted for surely our redeemer lives!  

Heather Savonne is a worship leader and singer/songwriter living in Houston, TX. She attended Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, TX where she got a B.S. in psychology and English minor. Heather is working on her first solo worship album and loves to encourage women in their daily walk with God on all of her social media platforms. Heather is married to her husband of 2 years, Lea, who has a ministry called Childish Faith Ministries where they both serve as worship leaders, kingdom creators, and partner with local ministries to highlight Christian creatives.