Five Minute Friday – Lost

I’ve been lost.  Utterly and completely lost.  Not because we didn’t know where we were.  Not because we didn’t know how to get where we needed to be.  Lost because it was dark, the clouds shut out the moon and the stars, and we were on the side of a mountain.   We knew the way home, when we could see the path.  But we were all but blind.  I held onto a bug that glowed in the dark for as long as it could glow.  I searched desperately for anything that would show me the next step to take.  Finally, cold, hungry, and scared to get any further off the path, scared that I might fall, we stopped.  We set on a rock and waited.  There was simply nothing else to do.  So we waited for the light.
I learned a lot that night.  I learned that I needed to be prepared for the journey.  A flashlight, a jacket, and a granola bar would have changed everything.  I learned that fighting fear is much easier when you are not alone.  I learned that while darkness may prevail for a time, light does return and shows you the way home.
While these lessons were born out of physical need, they have clear implications to our spiritual needs as well.  First, we need to be prepared for the journey.  We need the Armor of God.  Second, we are never alone.  Fear will come, but we always have trustworthy partner who will calm our fears.  Jesus promised He would be with us – even to the end of the age.  Third, God wins.  There will be darkness.  There will be seasons of life where we can’t find our way out.  Don’t give up.  The light is coming.  His mercies are new every morning.  God is bigger, brighter, and stronger than the darkness.  We can take comfort that He will never leave us lost.  If we seek Him, we will find Him and He will rescue us.