Getting lost is no fun.  Take it from me.  I’ve been lost a time or two (or fifty!).  I’ll think I know where I’m going and then, one wrong turn, and it’s a slippery slope of taking another wrong turn, trying to backtrack and forgetting which was the wrong turn, or the right turn, or the left turn or whatever turn, and pretty soon I’m a bit confused. (VERY confused, actually.)   It’s easy to lose our way sometimes… especially once that initial wrong turn is taken.  Remembering the starting point of when we got off track is crucial. Or of course, today, remembering that “Oh, yeah!  My phone has GPS!”   A Global Positioning System can definitely help get back on the right track. We can find our destination when we know where we are and where we need to be….and the GPS will get you there in whatever accent or voice you’d like!

So here’s the thing.  Sometimes we lose our way.   We take a wrong turn and then another wrong turn and then find that we’ve lost our way.  Our world looks different, unfamiliar from this vantage point.  The wrong turn could be a mistake… a bad choice that leads to another bad choice that leads to another, and we not only forget our way, we lose a sense of who we are. The turn could be a transition…unfamiliar territories that will take some time to adjust to until it feels like “home”.  In these times, it’s so easy to forget.  We forget who we are and where we’ve come from.   We feel lost.

I’ve definitely had a time or two when I’ve lost my way.  Sometimes it has been the result of sin that weakens and alienates.  Sometimes it’s just been exhaustion that creates voids and chasms and loneliness and an ache for wanting to be known.  Sometimes it has just been transitions that take time and patience and perseverance to get to the other side of before it feels like “home” again.  I’ve needed people to laugh and cry and remind me of who I am…to them…and to Christ.  Sometimes we all need reminders of who we are.  Sometimes we need to remind others of who they are.

And how do we do that?  We tell stories of things they’ve done.  The “remember whens” can bring a smile and a tear and revive a weary heart. We show them pictures of who they are…figuratively and literally. We tell them what they mean to us and meant to us.  We tell them how they’ve impacted our worlds. As crucial as that is …as important as my words, my opinions, my perceptions can be to family members,…the one thing that never wavers is the Word of God and who He says that we are.  It’s like the Word of God is the ultimate GPS…global positioning system.  Where do we fit in our world?  The Word of God fits the pieces together and paves the way ahead.

So, take it from me, one who has been lost a time or two (or 50!).  God’s word is the Compass, the Global Positioning System that can help us and our loved ones stay on track in a world that is like a compass with no True North…always spinning and pointing this way and that but with no true destination.  God gives us a perfect compass and reminds us of who we are in His Word.  In this global climate where anything goes and where wrong is right and right is wrong and wrong is left and left is right…well, we need a True North, a compass, a GPS that will remind us of where we’ve come, where we’re going, and who we are.

Oh, and one more thing.  Scripture tells us to remember a lot of things.  To remember what God has done.  To remember who we are.  To remember, know who He is and to press on to know Him more.  But it also tells us to forget.  To forget what lies behind knowing that we are a new creation in Christ.  To put on new things.   I love that we’re reminded to forget as well to remember. (Just wish that I didn’t do so much forgetting these days regarding keys and numbers and ‘where did I put that thing?” )Anyway, here’s to remembering and forgetting the things that help us press on to know Him more.

By His Grace~

Heather

“So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.  His going forth is as certain as the dawn.  He will come to us like the rain, like the Spring rain, watering the earth.”  Hosea 6:3

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on thine own understanding.  Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your paths.”  Proverbs 3:5,6

“I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go.”  Isaiah 48:7

“How Great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we could be called children of God.”  I John 3:1