Have you ever had a week when you felt like something was missing, but you didn’t really know what it was?

I had that kind of week last week. I felt something was missing and couldn’t figure out what it was.

Last week was typical in many ways. Everything seemed to be normal, as it could be. But I had this nagging thought in the back of my head that I was missing something. I really couldn’t handle it.

At first, I thought that maybe I had missed my apple fritter. My New Years resolution for this year was to only eat one apple fritter at a time. And from what I can remember, I haven’t missed one so far this year.

So, it wasn’t an apple fritter that I was missing. It was something, and it was starting to get on my nerves.

I pulled out my weekly schedule to see if there was a meeting that I had missed or forgotten about. I was very careful, and everything I was supposed to do last week I did. And yet something was missing.

I went back to my weekly schedule for five or six weeks and nothing was missing.

Maybe, I thought, I had a meeting that I had forgotten to schedule. So I asked the kind lady of the parsonage if she knew anything that I was missing.

Well, it sure was a mistake. He had a complete list of things that, according to his schedule, I had forgotten to do. It was almost a book full of “missed activities” that he thought I needed to catch up on.

I should have known better, but after completing all of his “tasks”, he still had this little itch that there was something missing.

Once again, I made the mistake of speaking out loud and mentioning that I felt like I was missing something.

That’s all the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage needs to hear, and once again, she was on her game and gave me a comprehensive list of the things she thought I was missing.

You would think that at my age I would know when to keep my mouth shut. But it was bothering me because I was missing something, and I don’t like that. I like to do my job and do everything as quickly as possible.

I went to the bathroom, looked at myself in the mirror, and saw that it had been a long time since I had my hair cut. I thought this was probably what I was missing. That would sure solve my anxiety.

So, I went to the hairdresser, cut my hair, and went home. I was smiling the whole way home because I thought I had found that missing thing during the week. I try to cut my hair every two weeks and sometimes I make a mistake and get out of the routine. But now the haircut was done and I was heading home.

When I opened the door to enter the house, I began to feel that itchy sensation again that something was missing. The haircut wasn’t really what I was missing, so I went back to square one.

As I was reflecting on this, my wife comes up to me and says, “Could you run to the supermarket and buy some things I need for tonight?”

Of course, he was willing to go shopping. I’m not a shopaholic, but when I get a list, I can do the shopping.

I had just put the last item in the shopping cart and was heading over to the checkout counter, and there it was!

I never thought it would solve my itch problem at the store. But there it was. I was walking down the candy aisle and there it was; several shelves full of CHOCOLATE.

There were all kinds of chocolate candies on those shelves. I froze and looked at all that CHOCOLATE and let the atmosphere fill my mind.

My wife can’t eat chocolate for some reason, but I love chocolate. We haven’t had chocolate in the house since before the pandemic, which may explain my nervous feelings. Nothing is more relaxing and comforting to me than a cup of Joe in one hand and the delicious chocolate bar in the other.

My only problem at this point was what not to buy. The chocolate that I like the most is the one that I am eating at the moment.

Without being critical, I selected a piece of chocolate from every shelf in that aisle. I filled my basket with chocolate candies. When I got to the checkout counter, a great weight seemed to have been lifted off my shoulders and a peace seemed to enter my life that I had not experienced for some time.

Driving home, I started to think about how I will get all this chocolate for my wife. I quickly put that aside and focused on the delicious chocolate I was eating at the time.

I thought of a wonderful scripture verse. “Do what you have learned, received, heard, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4: 9).

The peace of God is what most people are missing in their life today.