On a Personal Note – Get Lost… & Found

Each week, I’ll share personal reflections from my own time with God, our Heavenly Father. On a Personal Note is where I’ll highlight takeaways and implications for walking with the Lord.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Luke 19:10

How many people get in their car and set their GPS on “Get Lost”? Most of the time, there’s some set destination you’re trying to get to. I think the same thing goes for our lives. I honestly don’t believe people set their life intentions on being lost. I think getting lost is a series of little steps… little actions… further and further away from the path. It’s such a gradual drift that one may not even notice how far they’ve strayed.

There was one time in 2019, I looked up and didn’t even recognize who I was and the life that I was leading. I say leading because it definitely wasn’t a Spirit-led life. From the outside looking in, my life followed the somewhat typical path, high school, college, career, etc. But along the way side step by side step, I drifted. I wasn’t outright doing bad things, but I wasn’t doing godly things either. I guess one could say, I was lost in the middle. It wasn’t until an encounter with Jesus that I looked around and realized how far left I went.

In the book of Luke, chapters 18 and 19 show two interactions between Jesus and the lost, Zacchaeus and the rich ruler. See, Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and became wealthy by taking advantage of people. He was a despised man, so despised that when Jesus picked Zacchaeus’ house to visit, the people grumbled. But something amazing happened, the encounter with Jesus caused a transformation. Zacchaeus donated half his possessions to the poor and committed to repaying those he had taken money from. The evidence of a changed lifestyle was proof of Zacchaeus’ salvation. He changed the whole trajectory of his eternal life by choosing to get on the right path. The rich ruler lived a life that obeyed the commandments, but he lacked one thing. Jesus asked the man to sell everything and follow him. The ruler became sad because he was very wealthy. Nothing about this man was inherently bad. But when faced with the decision to get on a Jesus led path, he refused.

These two examples show that even when we are lost, we have a choice. We can choose to follow Jesus or stay drifting along; looking up periodically to see how far our lives have strayed or lack awareness to realize we’re lost.

If you ever get to a point where you look around at your life and wonder, how did I get here? Let me encourage you to set your eyes and heart on Jesus. He will lead and guide you back to the right path. It’s not a quick trip back. There are some things you’ve passed through that may have to be brushed off or cleaned up… But you’ll come through it with experiences to help the next believer stay on course.

After we encounter Jesus, we have a choice to change our actions and shift our lifestyle to display his teachings. May you encounter Jesus like never before this Advent season. May He shift your perspectives such that you begin to radically live for Him. May you begin to live a life of renewed sense of what it means to steward well. May you realize the power of prioritizing God first and allowing the rest to follow.

As we study the word of God, we should walk away with practical steps for our life. My takeaway is that we are never lost when we are actively following Jesus.

What about you? What’s your takeaway? How will you walk it out in your daily life?