Roman Holiday: Part 2 "Lost and Found"

I think the theme of today is "LOST." Imagine the creepy music and L-O-S-T swiping in then fading. 

Vatican City

Roman Forum

The first thing we lost today was time. We planned to wake up at 6:00 am to catch an early morning mass. But those plans were made the previous day when were awake for 24 hours/high on adrenaline. So naturally, the next morning, we slept like the dead until 10:00 am. We hurried to the Roman Forum, and then hightailed it to the Vatican City (desparate not to lose any more time)

Second thing lost: photo op in the Sistine Chapel. I had my camera out, poised to snap my personal pic of God almost touching Adam's finger when Bianca (real name protected) says: "no photos!" And there are signs every where and guards are watching our every move. I considered doing it anyway. Other people were, and they only got a verbal warning. But it just seemed wrong to be disobedient in the pope's private chapel. Obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22)...so perhaps that was no real loss.

After that we went for pizza at a little cafe near the Vatican and got into a rather passionate conversation about the crappiness of America with an older Roman lady. The conversation was struck up after she took pity on us as we struggled with our uncut pizza pies. Note: cut your pizza into fours and fold it up to eat. Genius. She spoke of the loss of American morality and elegance (I think she was referring to the 50s) in favor of American decadence and selfishness and the resultant socioeconomic disparity. She was from the Beat generation and spoke of the loss of our ability (or simple desire) to fight for good and justice in our world, and yet she felt like all was not lost. That a comeback of sorts was possible.

While she spoke, an image of a picture I took in the Vatican jumped into my mind:

Maybe you can see this, maybe you can't. But this is one of like a zillion frescoes painted on the ceiling of the Vatican. In it, an idol is broken down at the feet of a statue of Jesus Christ. Christ wins over idols. In this current time, I wonder how much of our purest spirituality/faith in God is lost to our idols.

"And [they] exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." Romans 1:23

I know what you're thinking: "Umm...I'm not guilty of that." True. Few of us have made a molten image and worshiped it. Or worshiped a chia pet. It just doesn't go down like that in modern times.

"What if I told you that every sin you are struggling with, every discouragement you are dealing with, even the lack of purpose you’re living with, are because of idolatry?" - Kyle Idleman 

I like that question, because we all want to know what is at the bottom of struggles. Why is this happening. And we want to lay it at the feet of Jesus. We want to give it to God. But is our idol broken at Christ's feet? I don't know. The common idols these days are: food, sex, entertainment, success, money, achievement, romance, family, self-adoration. What are we sacrificing for these things that we think make us happy? Think on that.

Throwing coins (backwards) into Trevi Fountain

Back to the trip. So after the lunch at the Vatican, we cabbed to Termini train station and I bought new luggage! Success! This was a really productive thing to do, and as a tragically unproductive person, I found myself extremely proud of this feat. Then, we walked home and decided to go for a run. I was skeptical about the run, because...I didn't want to do it. Running sucks. But out we went. And we were endlessly heckled by Romans the whole way. They made fun of us, they raced us (and beat us) and made "pom pom" sounds as we ran passed (this include the polizia). Our plan was to run to 1) the Trevi Fountain, and 2) the Spanish Steps. We made it to Trevi Fountain. We became woefully lost on the way to the Spanish steps. We were lost and it was starting to rain. I don't "do" rain, so I saw a lineup of taxis and thought: SALVATION. But then I thought: why so many cabs? Then I saw so many people. And then...we were at the Pantheon. I kid you not. We ran into the Pantheon in workout clothes. And it was beautiful/gorgeous/epic/perfect. So we went in, took a ton of pictures, said a prayer: and I thought about the people who transformed a pagan place of worship into a place of Christian worship. They exchanged an idol for the truth, and yet we so often exchange the truth for a lie. How did we become so backwards? I prayed about this at the Pantheon, which was built in 27 BC!!!! So, I literally prayed in a super old building, that has been used by Christians since the 7th century. Crazy. And awesome.

altar at the Pantheon

After that, we tried to run home. And became lost again. We found ourselves at a sign that said: "These Cats Died..." it seemed like a memorial for cats. Then we we realized there were cats everywhere. Scary cats. Sick cats. LOST cats. We were at the Cat Sanctuary. It's really Roman ruins that were discovered during construction, that was just left in the middle of a city neighborhood. These ruins came to be occupied by what I would think are hundreds of cats. You cannot feed the cats. If you feed them, they leave the sanctuary, run into the street, and are killed by cars. We are like the cats. We get fed by the things of this world, and we leave the sanctuary of God's will for our lives, and get hit by LIFE. It can be tragic. But everything that is lost can most definitely be found. We found our way home in Rome, and God finds us where we are in life, and puts us back on path (despite our idols and despite the food that leads us astray).

This post was a little long, but hey, I still want to drop my devotional prayer:

Lord Heavenly Father, we thank you for ordering our steps, and for your Word being a lamp to our feet. By this I know which way to go; but why do I sometimes walk along the unlit path? Why do I walk the course that is not set before me? Because I am led astray by the pursuit of happiness, not knowing that happiness is found in You. Deliver me from the way of thinking that has me looking outside of you, for the security and joy that only comes from you. I know there are idols in my life. Show them to me, and strengthen me so that I can break them at the foot of your cross, from which all blessing flow. In Jesus name, Amen!