Faith for a Farm: Lost and Found

I was on a business trip with my new job, where I would be attending a large, international air show. It was July and nearly 100 degrees. I was dehydrated and jet-lagged after flying through the night. 

When I checked into my hotel, I was told my room wouldn't be ready for a few more hours. So I decided to go for a walk and see what I could see. 

This was Paris after all!

In hindsight, I should have (of course!) grabbed a map. But I hadn't planned on going far. With each turn, I got more and more turned around. Tiredness and heat clouded my decision making. I love Paris so much, but couldn't enjoy the picturesque streets because I knew I had no idea where I was. It's a big city!

I spoke only the most basic words in French. When I tried to flag down a taxi, they sped by. I soon learned that the taxi drivers were on strike that day.

I was 25-years-old, and without an international cell phone. I found myself in a not-so-great area, but came across a phone booth (remember those?). I made a collect call to my  new husband back home in the US. 

I'm embarrassed to tell you what I said to him. I explained that I had gotten lost in a bad area of the city. And, so that he would sense the full gravity of my situation, I dramatically told him, before I hung up the phone, "This is how people disappear!" 

Don't ask me how, because it's a blur, but I eventually made it back to my hotel and fell asleep for the night.

I called my husband the next morning (as if nothing had happened). I guess I figured he knew I would make it back okay and was probably sleeping. 

He told me he had been up all night. He had gone out and bought maps of Paris, laid them out in our apartment, and tried to figure out where I was. He was so worried, he called in sick to work that next day and waited for my call. 
I felt so bad (and so loved). 

Fast forward to 2016...

A seventy-something missionary recently came to our church. He has been involved in spreading hope and building schools in more countries, for more decades, than I can remember. He has more passion that most 20-year-olds! He's so excited that when he speaks, he hardly ever finishes a complete sentence. :) 

He told us that sometimes we try too hard to explain the Gospel message. 
We over-complicate things in our efforts to be "relevant."

The next words he said, I haven't been able to stop thinking about. 
He said it all boils down to this:

I once was lost, but now I'm found.

The tears fell silently down my face. The beauty. The simplicity. 

The life-changing Gospel.

We have all been lost... sick in our own sin and selfishness. In need of a Savior. Someone who could see us as we are and love us still. Someone to pay our ransom. To forgive us and make our hearts whole again. Someone to give us hope and a future.

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke 19:10

I am thankful that all those years ago, my husband loved me enough to stay up all night, plotting my safe return. I am even more thankful that God never sleeps and knows just where we're at! He wants to bring each of us safely home. He doesn't leave us without a map. He has given us His Word - the Bible - to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now I'm found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Have a blessed Sunday!

Xo