We live in a neighborhood where all the roads lead back to home. Basically, once you enter our neighborhood, each road loops around to the main road so that it is super easy to get in and out to your home. It also makes it nice for walking, but it makes it hard for strangers to find their way out, even though you would think it was easy. A little loop and a right and out you are, but people often don’t follow the directions and stay in the loop.
I am doing Weight Watchers, and therefore, walking a lot more, so I have been challenging myself to get in more steps and make my way around my neighborhood more often. Recently, I took my daughter with me. She was less than thrilled that I was walking as much as I was and was ready to return home sooner than I was. I knew I could send her down the quickest path, and she would get home faster, or we could make just one more turn and add more time and steps to the trip. Wanting to walk the most for my time, of course, I wanted to turn, but she, being tired, wanted to quit and walk the shorter route.
I’ve recently been in a refining season (code for wailing and gnashing of teeth, tears, and more). The journey is hardest when I forget where I am going or who I am following, when I lean into the fear of what I am experiencing. Going on a walk that day, I sensed Jesus releasing me from the fear. His gentle whispers told me everything was going to be okay. We were going to be fine.
My daughter wanted us to go the shortest route home, but somehow I convinced her to keep going so I could get in more steps and activity. At the end of the path we ran into a troublesome dog, and she said, “See, we should have gone home.” We had to turn around and head back in the direction we came from, all the while, trying to out-walk a dog who really wanted to play with our dog.
Life is like that. Sometimes we have to turn around. Sometimes, all roads lead to home. Sometimes, you get lost, and have no idea where to go or where you were going in the first place. Sometimes, you just need someone to help you keep going – staying the path. How to journey home when you feel lost? Of course, Jesus is our True Way.
How to Journey Home when You Feel Lost
Sometimes, we need a friend to help us to keep going.
Like when I helped my daughter to stay in the course, sometimes we need a friend to keep us walk to path toward Christ. Sometimes, the friend is Jesus, and sometimes, it is a friend that Jesus uses to encourage us and help us to persevere and stay the course.
Sometimes, we have to turn around.
Sometimes, we make mistakes. We do things we know we should not, and we need to go back to the place where we started. This is what repentance does for us. It brings us back to our true North, back to the Father, back to Jesus.
Sometimes, you get lost, and have no idea where to go or where you were going in the first place.
Lately, I have identified most with this.
It has felt kinda felt like the people who get lost in my neighborhood – going around and around to no avail. Lost with little chance of getting out. At times, it has been scary. In the trial, sometimes, my default setting was to listen to the fear instead of the Father and His guiding voice. The less you listen to His voice, the less you recognize it and the foggier things appear. The enemy wants us to believe the fog is the place we have to learn to live, but the enemy is a liar.
Jesus’s voice may be far away, and even believers lose direction, but in the midst of storms, there is always a lighthouse shining in the foggy distance leading us home. I think Jesus allows us to lose our way to remind us of those wandering in the dark without the guided lighthouse of Jesus – to remind us of where we used to be and believe or not, to keep us on the right path toward Christ – even when we feel far away. This, more than ever, should compel us to keep being lighthouses and ambassadors for those in the dark. Without Jesus, we’d all just be walking around clueless as to where we are going.
Sometimes, all roads lead to home.
With Jesus, like the roads in my neighborhood, all roads, even the ones that snake around in circles, are leading us home.
Tweetables:
- The journey is hardest when I forget where I am going or who I am following.
- The journey is hardest when I lean into the fear of what I am experiencing.
- Without Jesus, we’d all just be walking around clueless as to where we are going.
- With Jesus, all roads, even the ones that snake around in circles, are leading us home.
- Sometimes we need a friend to keep us walk the path toward Christ.
Love what you share here, Jamie. We all struggle, in different and similar ways. So true, that what we need the most is Jesus: to let Him show us the way.
Lately, I’ve been thankful for the people God has placed on my path: “Sometimes, you just need someone to help you keep going – staying the path.” I’ve been particularly blessed by God bringing people who have been willing to share of their own deep grief and also remind me of God’s presence in my own. They’ve been shining His Light brightly, just when I’ve needed it.