Lost and Looking for Direction?
In life, it’s easy to feel lost or uncertain, even when we think we’re following the right path. But asking “Where am I?” is vital. It’s a question that goes beyond physical location, pushing us to assess our direction and ensure we’re not just drifting along or following others without purpose. This article will guide you in making that important self-assessment and discovering where you truly stand before God.
The Importance of Self-Assessment
Most of us have some level of underlying sense of direction even if at times we feel like we’re “going with the flow” or “blowing in the wind.” But having confidence in the direction of your life is critical. We don’t want to follow the crowd down the wrong path. And we certainly don’t want to become nihilistic and rationalize bad decisions and reckless behavior.
The first step to finding direction is to evaluate where you are. A self-assessment helps us identify areas of life that need improvement and facilitates movement toward our desired destination. If we fail to determine where we are, we risk wandering aimlessly or heading in the wrong direction.
Finding Your Bearings
Imagine you are exploring the high plains desert. In the middle of this multi-day hike, you’ve become disoriented, and now you’re lost. You have plenty of food and water, so you don’t panic. But to know the direction to your destination you need to figure out where you are. You carefully study your topographic map and you recognize a mountain range in the distance. Now you are re-oriented and know the direction you need to go.
Likewise, assessing your current state in life ensures that your path leads to the right destination. As Yogi Berra famously quipped, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up someplace else.” None of us want to end up “someplace else” without a plan or purpose. We want to have a plan for where we are going.
God’s first question to mankind:
9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.”
Holy Bible, Genesis 3:9-10
In verse 9 above, understand that when God asks Adam “Where are you?”, God was not unaware of Adam’s “coordinates.” God knew exactly where Adam was positionally located. Rather, the question was intended to get Adam to do a self-assessment of where he stood before God.
In verse 10 above, Adam surely had an underlying sense of the magnitude of what he’d done wrong, but in his response, he conceals the true reason he is hiding. It was his sin that made the nakedness of his body shameful and stripped his soul of its native clothing of purity and holiness. When Adam sinned, he was immediately transported into a place he’d never been before and, in this case, he needed God to show him the Way out.
Where are you?
God asks each of us the same question: “Where are you?” We don’t have to come up with our own idea of “where I am” – if we did, we’d most likely be wrong. Without the guidance of God’s Word (our topographic map), our self-assessment would be wrong. The Holy Bible is replete with explanation of where mankind stands before God. Perhaps the most succinct verses are these:
As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous – not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”
Holy Bible, Romans 3:10-12
The measure of righteousness, wisdom, and goodness is how God Himself represents these attributes. God is perfectly righteous. He is the embodiment of wisdom. And God is completely good. And like Adam, we are not. Not even on our best days do we come close to representing these attributes like God does. Each time we fail to represent these attributes with the perfection of God, it is a sin. Once you understand that you are a sinner before God then you have self-assessed your location. You now know the answer to “where am I?” Once we recognize our location – lost without God – the next step is understanding the way out.
The Way Out
Every human being, apart from Jesus Christ, is lost in sin and dependent on God for a way out. Jesus Himself said
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Holy Bible, John 14:6
Jesus is saying that through the plan of redemption that He carried out, He is the way out of the penalty that you would otherwise be responsible for paying (in hell) and He is the way to eternal life with the Father. Eternal life is the destination that all mankind should seek. There is unequivocally nothing more important than your eternal destination.
The first steps toward your destination
- Read the Holy Bible. A good place to start is the book of John. If you have questions about what you are reading, an excellent resource is GotQuestions.org
- Pray to God. When we pray to God we do so as humbly as we are able. We don’t make demands of God. We don’t ask Him to prove that He exists. Mankind’s problem is that we are hardened sinners. We must understand the magnitude of God’s righteousness, and sovereignty, and approach God with the utmost respect. Ask God to open your ears to the truth so that you would not dismiss His words (in the Bible). Ask God to soften your hard heart so that His words would be meaningful to you. And ask God to loosen your stiff neck so that when you hear His words that you would turn in the direction God would have you to go. Pray: Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and need Your forgiveness. I want to turn from my sins. Please come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as Lord and Savior.
- Believe. Believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross. God said:
- “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Holy Bible, John 3:16.
- “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Holy Bible, Revelation 3:20
- “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Holy Bible, Romans 10:13
- Repent. Repent means “to change one’s mind” about something. When a person has a change of mind about something it often results in a change of behavior. Repentance is an important part of an initial response to hearing God. We should turn from our sins as God brings them to our attention.
Change is not always easy
Sometimes, when we get an answer to “where am I?” we don’t like the answer. As we process what we read in the Holy Bible, we discover elements of our behavior that we don’t want to deal with even though we know it’s the right thing to do. Even good change can be uncomfortable and cause us to ignore the needed change. However, we should be willing to change our minds and our lifestyles when we are shown from God’s infallible Word that we are wrong. We should embrace change, no matter how hard it is, when it comes from God. Given the gravity of not being on the right path I pray, I sincerely pray, that you continue to seek God and that He would show great mercy to you and allow you to understand who He is.
Related content: A Spiritual Journey
AI did not write this article but assisted with proofreading.