Lost

What do you do when you can't find your way?

If you are on a trip in your car, you open the glove box and find a map or you may have a GPS system that just tells you where you are and helps guide you to where you want to go.

Years ago, sea captains used the stars and the sun to navigate, later as more of the earth was explored, they used charts created by others. Even later, we erected lighthouses to alert sailors of shallow areas with rocks that could damage or sink their ships.

In these cases, the path you end up taking has been taken by someone else before you. They share their experiences and give you valuable information that helps you to find your way.

Can you imagine the first ones to set out in uncharted land? Christopher Columbus? Louis and Clark? They had no idea what was in front of them because they didn't think anyone else had been where they were going. (it turns out that others had)

How do you get "un-lost"? How do you find your way when you feel alone, afraid and you don't know what's ahead of you? When you look around and the your surroundings look unfamiliar. You seek counsel, but even that counsel can't help you when you are alone.

Lost in Hope

Jonah 2:1-9 "...In my distress I called to the LORD , and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.' The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD , and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD ."

Have you ever been lost?

When I was a kid in elementary school, my mom would take us to the biggest store around at that time...K-Mart. It was the equivalent of going to Wal-Mart now. We went there alot and spent a good deal of time there. Inevitably, I would tire of following my mom around in the clothing department or whatever and ask if I could go look at toys.

As the minutes went by I would continue looking until I would wonder where my mom was, so I would start looking, of course starting where I left her. She was rarely still there. I would start walking up and down the aisles, looking down each one and as I went from aisle to aisle with no luck, my pace would quicken...and so would my heart. When I found myself at the end of the store I would turn around and do it again, this time faster. "Where could she be?", but it was such a big place. Questions would start in my head "what if she forgot me here?"

Often, I would find her before I started to really panic, but occasionally, I didn't. So I would go up to the Customer Service desk and ask them to page her...how embarrassing!

Was I lost? Not really, my mom new I was in the store and deep down inside, I knew that my mom wouldn't forget me at the store. Knowing those two truths didn't make me feel better when I was running down the aisles calling her name.

I started thinking about this when I read the lyrics to the song "Tourniquet" by Evanescence. The song asks the question that seems to wander into every red-blooded Christian's mind at one time or another. "Can I be so lost that even God can't save me?". "Can I do something so repulsive that God could never accept me into his arms again?"

The answer is a bold "NO"! If you need proof, you need not look farther than the somewhat infamous preacher named Jonah. Jonah TRIED TO HIDE from God and when he did, God showed him that he sees everything. Then when Jonah was in the belly of the big fish and sure that he would die he said "From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. " (Jonah 2:2) Jonah was terribly lost, afraid and on the edge of death. Jonah was far, far away from his Lord...or so he thought.

Then Jonah called for God "To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD , and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. " (Jonah 2:6,7) God was just a call away (just as my mother usually was), God is ALWAYS just a call away.

No, there is no place on earth or anywhere else that God cannot reach us, hear us, or care for us.

tourniquet

i tried to kill the pain
but only brought more
i lay dying
and i'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal
i'm dying praying bleeding and screaming
am i too lost to be saved
am i too lost?

my God my tourniquet
return to me salvation
my God my tourniquet
return to me salvation

do you remember me
lost for so long
will you be on the other side
or will you forget me
i'm dying praying bleeding and screaming
am i too lost to be saved
am i too lost?

my God my tourniquet
return to me salvation
my God my tourniquet
return to me salvation

my wounds cry for the grave
my soul cries for deliverance
will i be denied Christ
tourniquet
my suicide

© 2003 Wind-Up Records