MEET SOMEONE MAGNIFICENT

STEP 2: Mayday! M’aidez! 

As the Titanic sank no one perishing in the icy waters doubted that they needed a rescuer. But for most no one came in time. No ship. No lifeline. No one by trying harder could swim back to port in Ireland. Without a rescuer they were lost and with no hope.

Admitting that we’re lost is a critical stage in getting help. We stop, realise we’ve made some foolish choices, listened to bad advice, ignored the rules. Swimming harder doesn’t work anymore. If we’ve any sense, we call for help. (Try a quiet ‘help!’ now.) The wayward son realised he was lost. But there was help back home. He rehearsed his little speech: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you and am no more worthy to be called your son.”

Being lost means we’ve wandered away. The prophet Isaiah (in the Old Testament) said: “We all like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way.” Jesus said “There is a broad road that leads to destruction, and many are on that road. But the way that leads to life is narrow, and only a few find it.” God’s way is where the ‘goodies’ are. Any other way is a kind of living death.

Being lost means we’ve turned our back on God’s love and ways. The apostle Paul said “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Look, God doesn’t want you to be ‘religious’; he’s looking for your heart. Jesus had a hard time with self-righteous religious people who thought they could save themselves by their own religious efforts, that they could ‘swim to port’, so to speak. Ordinary people know better; they need someone to rescue them. Jesus loved even the people who knew they had committed the most terrible sins. Sin is more than breaking moral rules. It’s saying to God “Look, I don’t want you; I’ll find what I’m looking for somewhere else.” But there’s nothing anywhere else. And besides, no one other than your true Father – God – ever loved you as he does just now.

So Step 2 is admitting our lost condition and recognising how it contrasts with God’s way of personal wholeness and freedom. Can you say “Help! I’m lost! I’m in a mess. Father, I want to come home.”?