Have you ever been lost? Have you discovered that you have no idea where you are and how you came to be there? This summer we met a part of my family in Orlando for a four day trip to Disney World Theme Parks (all of them). While there my brother and parents found joy in telling my nieces and son about a time I became lost at Disney. I was about 11 years old at the time. My dad let me make what was supposed to be a quick trip to the restroom while he waited on the rest of the family to meet us. I made it to my destination, took care of business, stopped on the way out for a drink of water, and took a wrong turn and ended up on what felt like the other side of the park – LOST!

Have you ever been alone? I mean completely alone. I am the only one at the church building right now, but I am not alone, because my Amy and Andrew will be home from school this afternoon, and we will go to a Junior High Football game where we will be with friends. I am talking about the loneliness a widower feels when his wife of over fifty years passes away. He spends his time at home, alone. Family and friends drop in, but they leave too soon. The characters in the Beatles’s song, Eleanor Rigby is playing on iTunes as I write – there is a song of loneliness.

Jesus may best understand and can best empathize with your loneliness. He took his followers to the garden where he went a little deeper in to pray. His prayer shouts loneliness. A few hours later Jesus hangs on the cross and pleads, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” – ALONE!

Why? Why did He suffer all alone? For you. For me. He suffered ALONE for the LOST. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost.” Lk 19:10.

Thank God I do not have to be alone, because God is always with me. And thank God I do not have to remain lost!

– Scott