give us strength, help us cope;
in this world where’er we roam
God’s ancient words will guide us home.
---Lynn DeShazo, 2001
Have you ever gotten lost? Turned around? So worn out you
lost track of the path ahead of you and stumbled into the high grass off the
side of the trail? Have you ever looked around for a sign, or down at a map, or
up at the stars, and wondered, “Where in the world am I?” Have you ever sat there, where you found
yourself---lost---and asked yourself, the open road, no one in particular, “How
in the world did I get to here?”
Friends, I am the queen of getting lost, but not just in a
literal way. I cannot count the times I’ve gotten lost behind a guitar, or in
the pages of a book, or in front of a screen of some sort. I’ve been lost at
the bottom of a mountain of to-do's, and
in a deep well of lonesomeness; and lost in frustration with the inadequacies
of this broken world, and inadequacies of my own. How about you? Where
do you get lost?
What hopeful, life-giving words, then, what a promise---that
ancient words, God-inspired and preserved for us in Scripture, stand as a
beacon in our lostness, in our turn-aroundness, in our discouragement and
weakness. I hear some speaking to me now:
In
this world you will have trouble, but fear not…I have overcome the world.
The
steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
I
have loved you with an everlasting love.
You
are mine. You are precious in my sight.
These are the words that guide me home. Every time…every
time.
