More Time Lost Than Found - Martin Wiles

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” John 3:3 NLT

The trip was less than three hours one way, but it took longer than it should have.

Tragedy struck our family during the Thanksgiving holidays. A first cousin was playing golf with his only son the day after celebrating Thanksgiving with his family when he suddenly fell over and died. Nothing his son, through CPR, or the medics did could save him.

His younger brother called to say the family wanted me to conduct the services. I had conducted the funerals for their mom and dad. I agreed. Mom and my wife would sing at the funeral.

We loaded up our gang in two cars. Mom and my step-dad are getting up in age and having trouble negotiating the highways, but, since they were following us, we wondered what could happen. We soon found out.

Mom stopped in a town one mile from the funeral home to get a pair of socks. The ones she had on didn’t match her pants. We went on to the funeral home. Shortly after arriving, Mom called. “We took a wrong turn. I don’t know where we are. Can you please help us?”

A fifteen-minute conversation with my cousin finally led them to the funeral home. They had gone thirty minutes out of the way. On our way home, they got lost again when they got in the wrong lane to get on the interstate. This led to another out-of-way experience that cost them more time.

Nicodemus spent a large amount of time lost as well. I don’t know his age when he approached Jesus, but he was a religious leader who thought he had all the answers about how to connect to God. He was wrong. Jesus told him he had to be born again—not just meticulously obey the letter of God’s law, as he had assumed.

Vain pursuits in life can cost huge amounts of time. Time wasted. We don’t end up where we thought we would, or we don’t enjoy where we end up when we get there. Bad choices. Ones that take us places we never should have gone and keep us there much longer than we want—or should—stay.

Getting found entails being in a relationship with God through Christ and spending our time doing only what God plans for us to do. Anything else wastes our time and places us in a lost condition.

If you’re feeling lost, consult the only One who knows where you should be heading.

Prayer: Father, remind us that You always know where we are.

Tweetable: Do you feel lost more than you do found? 

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