“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”

Isaiah 30:21

There are times in our lives when we get lost. Times when we find ourselves in difficult situations that we don’t know how to get out of. These times are often accompanied by feelings of confusion, despair, and loneliness. We convince ourselves that this is all our fault, and that we deserve this because of what we’ve done or not done. We convince ourselves that no one else has ever gone through something like this, but if they have, and they are better now, it is because they are stronger, or smarter, or better than us.

The problem with that reasoning is that doesn’t line up with our faith. Our faith tells us that we have had many brothers and sisters who have gone before us who found themselves lost in the wilderness, or who faced difficult situations. In their desperation, they clung to their faith in God, the same God who is leading us and carrying us now.

I too have found myself lost and in a difficult situation many times in my life. One time in particular, I was lost, physically lost, geographically lost in the jungles of Panama. When I was a soldier with the 10th Mountain Division, I had to complete a land navigation test as part of my training. While trying to find my way through a dense jungle I stopped, looked around, and realized I was completely lost. I was encompassed by trees so thick I couldn’t see the sky. The mountains and streams were completely foreign to me. I was utterly lost and surrounded by all kinds of venomous and deadly ants, spiders, snakes and more. (Some of which I saw, more of which I thank God I didn’t see).

A few minutes went by that felt like forever in that moment. My mind went from one bad ending to another. It is a sad truth that soldiers sometimes die in training. It is a well-known truth that people get lost in the jungles of Panama and are never found. I could count on my right hand all the venomous snakes that could kill me, and those were only the ones that I was able to remember from my training. I thought of the snakes I saw before I got lost. I thought of the scorpion I saw when I sat down for a break earlier that day. I thought of the bullet ants that I saw swarm and devour that scorpion. My mind raced with all the ways this could end very badly.

Finally, after what seemed like hours (it was likely only minutes), who kicked down the door to my thoughts and reminded me that I had a map and a compass, and I knew how to use them. I chose the smaller of the ridges that surrounded me, and climbed to the top. From there, I was able to acquaint myself with the terrain, and match it to my map, orient myself to my destination, and plot a course. I did not make it in record time, and I was one of the last people to arrive … but I arrived.

God did not leave me alone in that jungle. It was God who was there protecting me, clearing my mind, bringing my training back into my thoughts, showing me the way to safety. The same holds true for all of us when we find ourselves lost in the wilderness.

Here is the truth. God has not left you. The truth is God will never leave you, nor forsake you.

But this is where we, as Christians, recognize that the truth of scripture is being presented to us, and we internally counter scripture with our own experiences, our own rationale, and our own despair. We respond to what is supposed to be affirming truth of the presence of a loving father in the midst of our pain by pushing back with questions fueled by our own downwardly spiraling emotions. “If God is here, why can’t I feel Him? If God loves me, why do I feel like this? I’m too broken to fix. I’m too messed up to be loved. No one understands, and why would they want to?”

Maybe we all need to go through our own experience of being lost in the wilderness in order to better understand what it means to have the Spirit of God with you, speaking to you, guiding you, and bringing you up out of the wilderness. Looking back on my very real experience of being lost, scared, and feeling all alone, I know those feelings just as well as I know God was with me there, and will always be with me. That first time being lost, and feeling like God is not with you, or that He has left you is a difficult experience. But coming out of that and seeing how God used that time to reassure me, my faith in God’s presence during those times the followed where I felt lost and alone welled up inside me to remind me that He has not and will not leave me.

Here is the truth. You are not the only one.

After all the years I have spent listening to the dejection and hopelessness uttered to me in private by the people I love as they break down in front of their pastor or their friend, I’ve come to realize this is not an uncommon feeling relegated to only the few who can’t seem to handle difficulty or stress. This is a human problem that affects everybody equally. Sure, there may be a few people out there who have not experienced being lost and lonely, but they are either the exception or they simply haven’t experienced this yet.

For Christians, it seems this feeling of separation from the rest of “normal people” is even more devastating. For the non-Christian, this feeling of being the only one, is terrible enough. You see everyone around you having fun. Smiling. You scroll through social media posts and see all your friends enjoying life, without a care in the world – and definitely without any problems they can’t handle. This separation can cause your problems to seem even worse, or even more insurmountable. It can also cause you to see yourself as less than worthy, or incapable of taking care of yourself.

What I didn’t know when I was frozen with fear, lost in the jungles of Panama was that at that very moment, less that one mile away from my position, were other soldiers going through the same ordeal. They simply were given different routes, as I found out later, but they too had their own moments of being lost and the fear that goes along with it. In actuality, the trainers expect this from most of those who go out for their first time, and are ready to find lost soldiers and bring them back.

In much the same way, when you are feeling lost, and you feel like you are the only one going through this, you are wrong. You are not alone in this feeling, and your are not alone when you are lost. There are people like your pastors or elders in your church that have gone through these times, and who are ready to jump in and help you. Do not be ashamed or embarrassed. Your pastors and your elders have gone through these times as well, and would be blessed to come alongside you in this time.

Here is the truth. Christ is your help and your provider.

For the Christian who finds themselves lost and lonely, there is all of this separation, and the added attack on their faith in Christ, their love of God, and their ability to live a life worthy of God’s grace. They battle with themselves, with the world, and with the devil over their inner most core sense of self. Christians seem to be the least likely to afford themselves the same mercy and forgiveness that Jesus gave them on the Cross.

The old adage, you are your worst critic, holds true. Every person that I have been with, going through this loneliness and despair quickly heap coals upon their own heads, but excuse or forgive others for accusations much worse by any rational standard. There is a reason Scripture includes parts that specifically instruct Christians to love themselves, and to forgive themselves. That reason is simple: We don’t want to.

If you can break through all this negative self talk, all this self punishment, all this tearing of ourselves down, you will see that God has given you all you need. He is Jehovah Jireh – the Lord our provider. God provides for you even when you are lost, and even when you have given up on yourself. When I was in the jungle, I realized I had all I need to go from being lost to knowing my location, to finding my way, to getting home. All of this because I remembered my training, and I used the tools that I had been given: my compass and my map.

God has trained you up in the way that leads to righteousness. He has trained you on Sunday meetings, at prayer times, at Bible studies, at Sunday school, and more, for many reasons, one of which is so that when you are lost you will know what to do. He has given you the Holy Spirit, the knowledge of Scripture. As is says in Ephesians, “put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.” Ephesians 6:13.

This Scripture may be most recognized as a Sunday school lesson for children, but it wasn’t written by a child or for children. It was a serious and sobering illustration for grown men and women to understand how God has equipped them for every trial. For our struggle, like mine in the jungle and every other struggle I’ve had with loneliness and despair is “against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12

In your loneness …

• Go to God in prayer
• Go to your pastors and elders
• Trust in the Holy Spirit
• Use the tools God has given to you