Being Found

Nothing in God’s whole world has any power to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:39

Have you ever been lost? Not when you are driving and take a wrong turn or are trying to find your way in a new situation, but really lost—when you do not know where you are or how you will find your way back. Being lost is an empty, frightening feeling: the uncertainty of the unfamiliar, the despair, the feeling that you should know the way and should know the answer, but do not.

Being lost can be a physical experience but also an emotional one, involving separation from ones we love, relationships that have shattered, or friendships that have ended; but perhaps the most devastating experience is to be spiritually lost, having no compass to point to truth, no map to show direction, and, when prayers seem to be unanswered, to feel alone.

Jesus taught about being lost in His parables of the lost coin and the lost sheep, but it is in the account of the lost son—the prodigal—that we can best identify. It is a situation brought on by poor choices and self-indulgence. In the story, the son takes the blessing of his inheritance and goes to live as he pleases. Eventually, he finds himself with nothing and no one; he finds himself lost.

So often we are like the prodigal son because we have separated ourselves from God. Perhaps it stems from poor choices or from uncertainty, having chosen our own path rather than following

the way God intended.

In his letter to the Christians in Rome, the apostle Paul speaks to this dilemma. “What can separate us from the love of God in Christ?” he asks. “Can trouble, pain, persecution, poverty, danger?” His answer is this: Nothing. “Neither death nor life, neither messengers of heaven nor monarchs of earth, neither what happens today nor what happens tomorrow, neither a power from on high nor a power from below, nor anything else in God’s whole world has any power to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

There is no need to suffer, as the prodigal realized. We need only to return to the Father. The way has been established: “Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us!” (Romans 8:34).

The choice, then, is ours. Put it on your doorframe. Write it on your heart. Choose it. Live it.