Talking about being lost, have you ever seen the bumper sticker, “Follow me, I know where I am going?” Then you suddenly realize you have 20 some cars following you to see WHERE you are going. Of course, some smart designer created another one, “Don’t follow me, I’m lost too!”
When a scout is lost
When you are part of the scout movement, they teach you to admit you are lost and stay put so that the rescuers can find you. You learn to make smoke signals or use a mirror to send an SOS. But most will not admit they read the map wrong and continue to persist in trying to find their way out of the jungle or mountain valley. And if you don’t watch out, you can find yourself badly hurt by falling from a cliff or completely dehydrated by not finding water on time.
Being lost is not geographical but spiritual
Believe it or not the Bible also talks about us being lost. It is not geographical but spiritual. We have lost sight of God. And as someone said once, “If God seems far away guess who moved? “
The prophet Isaiah said this 500 years before the coming of Christ. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way.”
We could say that 2500 years later we still follow each one our own way. And we continue though we suffer terribly from our choices. But worst of all we are not at all convinced that we are lost and on the wrong track. Since everyone is doing it…
Elvis Presley sums up this way of thinking well in his song “My Way”:
And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear
I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain
I’ve lived a life that’s full
I traveled each and every byway
Oh, and more, much more than this
I did it MY Way
Amazing Grace
Another famous song that every body knows was written by a former captain of a slave ship John Newton. He participated in that lucrative traffic of slaves kidnapped in Africa and sold to plantations in the new world. After losing several sailors during a terrible storm, he cried out to God to save him and his ship, and the storm calmed down. He recognized that God had heard him. John Newton converted to Christianity and became a pastor. He also helped fellow Christians (abolitionists) who struggles to pass a bill in the British parliament against slave trade.
That day, God found someone who didn’t deserve to be saved but saved him anyway.
Amazing Grace
How sweet that sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see.
It is our choice
We think we are perfectly able to choose what is good for our life without the help of God. But who do we cry out to, when all is lost ?
The eye of God contemplates the ways of man over the whole earth and knows the road we have decided to follow. Yes we are free to decide, but we are incapable to see the consequences of our decisions. He also sees in what dead-end situation we have put ourselves.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 16. 25)
Worse than that, there are individuals we used to call « black sheep » who endanger the whole flock by the influence they have. Others watch the road the influencer has chosen. There seems to be no negative consequences (for now) and decide to go that way too. It is easy to justify.
« He/she is doing it so I can too ».
Lost in the way
God calls us « sheep. In His eyes we are a species like sheep. A Shepherd needs to guide them. Because we have the bad habit of following the crowd without any thought of where they are leading us. There is peer-pressure that wants to be accepted by others. And this pushes us into ways of no return (except by the grace of God). Taking drugs at a party, sleeping with the woman destined to another man, trying out “alternate” sexual practices or seeking a spiritual “experience” by consulting a psychic or fortune teller are all ways to lose your freedom. You bite the bait with your emotions and reasoning and your “legs” are caught in the snare.
The Way of the “thought leaders”
Already in the Old Testament God was irritated with this way of thinking.
We are lost by our emotions. “They are a people who err in their heart, and they do not regard my ways » (Psalms 95.10)
We are lost by our faulty reasoning : God blames the thought leaders who should know better. At that time they were the religious leaders. It was true 2500 years ago too. Just to say, « there is nothing new under the sun. »
Jeremiah 50.6 : “My people have been lost sheep; their Shepherds have led them astray. Who were these shepherds not doing their work? They were the religious leaders.
What did they do ? They were saying “All is well” (positive thinking) …while they were in danger of being invaded if they didn’t change their behavior. It’s true we often don’t listen to whistle blowers until it is too late.
Ezekiel 13.10 : “They have misled my people saying « Peace » when there is no peace.
Where will this lead if we follow the way of our emotions or our reasoning ?
The apostle Paul talks about people who are lost in their (false) reasoning. (So would mean we can have perfectly valid reasons all the while being totally lost?)
What is worse, is when our intelligence and our emotions are plunged into the dark (since we won’t admit we are on the wrong road). We can do what we want until the consequences of our actions fall upon us. Because no one knows what the outcome on a spiritual level of decisions we take and the road we have chosen.
Romains 1.21: “For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or gives thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened.
Go to Part Two False Reasoning or True Lies