Like most people, I have found myself lost several times in my life. The scene is almost always the same: you travel on under the assumption that you are going one way until at some point you come to a sign or a marker informing you that you are not only not where you expect yourself to be but, even more so, you are in fact lost, meaning that you do not know where you are of the more peculiar variety.
However, up to and until the point in which you are forced to reckon with the fact that you are lost, you can go on for miles and miles assuming that you are, in your mind, not lost. This internal sense that you are not lost is the very reason that any verification that you are, in actuality, lost must be of an external variety, i.e. a sign, post, marker, that eerily unfamiliar Denny's, et al.
It is only as one recognizes the externally verifiable locale of being lost that the internal transition can begin. By 'internal transition' I mean the often difficult recognition of said lostness which prompts a recalibration of route in order to become un-lost. This involves, more than anything, a drastic alteration in previous course and trajectory.
To accomplish this task it is said that re-tracing steps is a reliable way to change one's locational status from lost to un-lost, and while this may be true, I have always found it to be the more self-deprecating and longwinded method for relocation. After all, the shortest way to get between two points is a straight line, or a teleporter, or a magic amour. In the case of being lost, only the first seems reasonable or even possible (still holding my breath, though).
In the end, the first step of moving from being lost to un-lost is the realization that one is, in fact, lost. This realization, like many that come about in life, is dependent upon the humbling recognition that you are not where you think you are; as it turns out, this is the definition of lost. But this recognition comes at the behest of the externalities that render the individual lost. As far as I can tell, the bedroom never looks like the kitchen so if I find myself in a bed, I can be sure that I am not in a kitchen.
All of this has been an excessive attempt at creating a metaphor, an analogy of spiritual things. Every human being is born lost. We walk on through the wilderness of the world lost, totally lost. Yet the true tragedy of this disorder is that we live under the illusion that we are not lost. But this could not be further from the truth: we are lost. The lost-ness that so blankets our eyes and veils our steps is sin, and it is sin that has caused the great separation reckoned to mankind, removing us from the sure footing of closeness to God to put us in the utter darkness of living life lost.
Yet as any man wandering far from his trail may become found simply by recognizing that he is lost from his surroundings and what they lack, so may the spiritually lost human being also cease to be lost in a blinking moment by recognizing the sign: Jesus saves and hunts for those who are lost. This recognition involves two interrelated components: faith and repentance. One must both recognize that she is lost as she determines to turn in a direction towards the un-lost (repentance), just as she must trust that the new direction will be fruitful for her to become and remain un-lost (faith).
While there is, to be sure, much more to say about this, it would suffice to state that it all comes down to Jesus. He is the signpost of truth and He is the way. If ever we were to cease to be lost, it is Jesus that sets us on the right path and it is He that directs right steps by the steadfast faithfulness and power of His Word. Remember, "I once was lost but now am found." He died so as to provide a way for us to no longer be lost; this is amazing grace. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment