Lost and Found

April 29, 2023

“I wasn’t lost; I was just misplaced for awhile.” Daniel Boone’s response to those who weren’t convinced of his wilderness prowess didn’t work for me. I had been hunting with my father and brother in the hills of Alma, NY. There is quite a bit of woodland between roads, but I was pretty sure where I was. Not so with my brother and father, who reported me lost to my wife. I was calmly waiting by the roadside when their improvised search party caught up with me. Never mind that it wasn’t the road I had expected to come out on; no—I wasn’t lost.

People don’t usually get lost on purpose, nor all at once. It happens gradually, a step at a time. Familiar landmarks fade as the surroundings all begin to look alike until we stumble upon an unfamiliar scene; “I’ve not seen that tree before; that break in the woods doesn’t look quite as I remember.” We lose our way gradually, without knowing it at the time.

In life, it happens in many different ways. One decision leads to another; it’s gradual at first, but begins to snowball. We shave a little truth off our words, fudge a bit on our taxes, find shortcuts to the grade in school, steer gradually towards the edge of impurity.

We can get so busy doing good that we gradually forget why we started in the first place. I’ve been struggling for some time with my work in Cuba. Before I retired, I had in mind to spend more time there in retirement, teaching alongside my good friend Joel. But Willie, our primary connection in Cuba, was feeling some governmental heat and decided to come to the States for awhile. What he thought would be a matter of months stretched into two years. Two years we weren’t able to go to Cuba. Then my friend Joel died, Covid hit, and I lost my way. I thought it was the result of all these external circumstances, but I was wrong.

When I began going to Cuba on mission trips, it was because I realized that I could take three people to Cuba for what it cost for me to go to Mongolia or Nepal where I had worked with Every Home for Christ. It was more important to me to get others to experience mission life than to have different and exciting international missions experiences by myself. I was (and am) convinced that experiencing foreign missions was a key component to jump-starting a deeper and vibrant faith at home. 

Somewhere along the line, I lost my focus. I was looking at the results in Cuba rather than the results in my friends here at home. I began comparing what I was doing to what others were accomplishing, which is never a good idea. As I said, I lost my focus, and when that is gone, life feels as disorienting as being lost in the woods.

Yesterday and today, I had the privilege of spending time with a friend whose work in Cuba is bursting with success. As we talked, God began to reveal to me where I had gone off the rails. I had been thinking the problem was “what wasn’t happening in Cuba,” but the real problem was what wasn’t happening in me. I’m reconnecting with my original purpose, and it feels like I finally have my feet back on the ground. There are still many unanswered questions, but as things come back into focus, I believe most of them will take care of themselves.

When Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” he wasn’t just making an abstract statement. He was stating truth. When we find our way in him, we discover truth about ourselves, and the life he always intended us to have.