What Does It Mean to be Found?

I’m not good with directions. I never could find where we were on that big paper Rand McNally map, so when the first GPS came out, I considered it to be a marriage saver. Until I realized how terribly bad I am with technology.

I mean lost is lost.

When the kids were little and we lived in Italy, our family of six took a camping vacation to the Netherlands. When we arrived in our clunky old van, we biked on the webbed bike lanes that covered the country.

The three girls each had their own bikes, and Phil carried our little boy on the back of his. We had started back to our campsite from our city ride, when he realized we’d left our back pack with passports behind on the sidewalk.

“Just keep going straight until you hit the North Sea,” Phil told me as he turned his bike back to where we’d last rested.

“You can’t miss it,” he threw over his shoulder.

Well, we missed it.

The path we were on diverged with right and left options. Straight ahead simply didn’t exist. I tried to ask for help, but I couldn’t remember the long Dutch name of our campsite.

Not only had I lost the way, I didn’t know where I was going.

And although the Dutch are amazing with the English language, a barrier still existed.

Another thing became abundantly clear. The Netherlands are known for their windmills because it’s windy. Really windy.

And as we four girls rode against it, our hair blowing up, out, and over, the sky blackened. Lightening streaked. Thunder rolled.

We were lost in a forest of paths, riding on high blustery dikes, and the signs were in a language we couldn’t read.

I imagined headlines about the lost American family, not at sea, but trying to find it.   

Meanwhile, Phil, the happy optimist in our family, got back to camp with our little boy and passports safe. But, we weren’t there. They waited. Time passed. They got in the old van and drove around looking for us. When they couldn’t find us, they went back to the camp, but we still were not there. And so they drove again from camp to where we’d started.

And the rain began to fall. Lightening flashed. Night approached. We were freezing, drenched, and desperate.

Somehow, we girls found ourselves in the middle of a golf course. And there, under a tiny roof, the girls and I took shelter. A map was fixed onto the wooden structure. One of my daughters, blessed with her daddy’s genes, found where we were and located our camp with all its consonants.

We arrived at the empty cabin just moments before my by-then-frantic  husband and son got back. Had we not been there, they would have gone to the authorities to report a lost mommy with her three daughters.

The Church today lives in a world confused about the lost. We sometimes qualify it, quantify it, soften it, and do our best to keep it non-offensive. We occasionally make the mistake of confining our definition of “lost” to a class or status like the rich or poor, an ethnicity, group of people, a country, or political party.

But, in the Kingdom of Christ, lost is lost and found is found. There is no sorta, kinda, or maybe. No exception for where one lives, the color of skin, age, or the amount of money in one’s pockets. Nor does any person’s situation in life make him or her more deserving of the title of lost or found.In the Kingdom of Christ, lost is lost and found is found. Share on X

We are either lost, never having put our faith in Christ alone for salvation, or found, believing in His completed work and surrendered to Him heart, mind and soul.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Paul clarified. (Romans 3:23 KJV)

In the Kingdom of Christ, found is found. But how can one be found without first knowing he or she is lost?

On my Netherland bike tour, I not only didn’t know the right path to take, but I didn’t know the name of the destination.

The disciple Thomas asked Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:5-6 ESV)

The desperate need we have of Jesus in our lives cannot be, should never be, and absolutely must not be sugar-coated to make anyone feel better, seem not so bad, or less lacking somehow in their spiritual need. For each of us is born lost, separated from God.

“For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10 KJV)

Recognition of lostness, the acknowledgement of how lost one truly is without Christ, invites found-ness. There waits Jesus’ abundant mercy and grace.

“For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (Romans 10:13 ESV)

I’m pretty sure we would have never found our way back to that campsite with its long-and-impossible-to-pronounce name, had we just kept pedaling, ignorant of the fact that we needed help.

And the joy of being found?

Spectacular.

 

 

 

*Feature Photo by Jöran Maaswinkel on Unsplash