Lost

Intro

Have you ever been lost?

Story

When I was nine years old, my family went to Camp Wawona for a camping trip. Camp Wawona is located in Yosemite National Park in California, and is famous for its mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and other natural features.

There were many trails for hiking, but my friend Ariana and I didn’t want to go on a trail; we wanted to go our own way. Ariana and I were looking for pine cones. The pine cones at Yosemite are huge—some are up to a foot long—and we wanted to see how many we could find.

Ariana and I wandered away from our campsite looking for pine cones. We didn’t follow any of the trails because the best pine cones along the trails had already been found.

We looked for pine cones for quite a while, until it was time to go back to camp and check in with our parents. But that was when we had a problem. We didn’t know which way to go. The forest was thick, and all we could see was trees everywhere. We walked around for a while, but we didn’t make any progress.

Ariana started to cry. I kept looking and looking, trying to figure out which way to go. I was scared because I’d never been lost before—I was always good with directions.

Finally, I saw some movement. It was a car. I’d spotted a road. We hurried toward the road, hoping to be able to figure out where we were. When we got to the road, I recognized it and we were able to go directly back to camp.

Ariana never went exploring with me after that. I guess she didn’t want to risk getting lost again.

Application

Many people today are lost. They don’t know what is the right way to live. And they’re so lost that, unlike my experience, they can’t find their way. But Jesus wants to be our guide. He wants to show us the way. He’s given us a guidebook, the Bible, that will show us how to no longer be lost. And we can ask Him to be our Friend and Guide.

The Bible says in Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”(ESV).