I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost;
search for your servant,
for I do not forget your commandments. Psalm 119:176
A few weeks ago, I dropped my kids off at an amusement park, and while they were having fun, I tried to run a few errands. One of those involved going to the local mall to hit a couple of stories before sitting down to work at a coffee shop. Because I had not been to there for a few years, I put the name of the place into my GPS app, and off I went.
Before long, I was circling a large, seemingly abandoned, building as the voice on the app alternated saying, “Turn right” and “You have arrived at your destination” in my ears. I was not, of course, where I wanted to be.
A number of things could account for the error. Perhaps I entered the information incorrectly. Maybe I tapped the wrong spot when a list came up. Maybe someone gave the wrong information to the app as a joke. Maybe, in the intervening years, the mall was moved, I started to think when my frustration reached a peak.
I never figured it out. Eventually, I stopped at a convenience store, went to a restroom to splash water on my face, bought a drink, and tried again. This time I found success.
For the modern Christian, this verse may seem to be a contradiction, because we typically equate being “lost,” in a spiritual sense, with not following God’s will, which we also equate with God’s commandments or laws. Many people, believers and non-believers, think of laws as directions. We reason that if we follow the law, we will never be lost. Follow the rules, and we will always be on the right path.
But we should know from experience such oversimplifications are not true. Sometimes we do all the right things and still find ourselves baffled and bewildered when we find ourselves where we are certain God would not want us. Perhaps we double-check the “rulebook” and retrace our steps. Sometimes an unholy panic sets in and deceives us into believing that there is no hope of “getting it right.”
Have we forgotten that God sees and seeks us where we are? The psalmist is not contradicting himself, and is not saying he deserves to be saved because he has followed all the rules. Instead, he cries out to the living and loving God, reminding the Lord that he remembers God’s will and wishes to be brought back into the fold, like a sheep. Sheep can know the voice of the shepherd and still get lost. We can know the “rules” and still not know everything.
We have a Shepherd to lead us, not a wizard to cast spells. Our God is mighty, even when He appears absent, and we do not need magic to find Him.
Lord, whether we are lost or found, let us cry out to You. Give us the wisdom to correct the errant path, to stay the course when we doubt what we know is true, and to understand the difference. In the Holy Name of Christ Jesus, Amen.
