‘I think we’re lost!’ ‘Well if you’re lost I’m lost to!’ I love to go out walking and finding new footpaths. I like the sense of adventure it gives to just be following a map or a set of directions. As a child I was always out playing in the fields or ridding my bike. I’m happier outside than in if truth be told. I’ve walked more since the pandemic than I ever have as an adult and I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s a chance to stop and stare and feel close to God through creation. It’s become more of a part of my own spirituality than ever before.
There have been occasions when my husband has looked at me a little worried as to where we are going and more to the point wondering if we are lost. My sense of direction is pretty good, unless I’m in a shopping centre but that’s another matter! Maps and sat. navs. help us to find the way but you still need to know where you are for them to work, or at least the very least you need a grid reference or a satellite signal!
We can of course all feel lost at times, even when we know where we are. There that feeling of not quite being comfortable in ourselves, or that something is missing, or not quite right. The pandemic has made us all on high alert, to greater or lesser degrees, and our fight or flight response has been switched to overdrive. I’m normally quite a laid back kind of person and good in a crisis but at times I’ve felt stressed, and anxious and not known what to do with myself. In that event there has only been one way for me to deal with it and that was/is to get out and walk. Walking helps me feel more grounded, more at peace with myself. Yes, because I’m out in creation, but I feel it to with a walk around the block near to where I live. I feel grounded in main because I give God the chance to break into my thoughts and anxieties and stress. There is something about looking out, rather than at looking in on ourselves and our own problems. Look out at this beautiful land of ours and notice the small things. Notice the incidentals that we have missed when we have been racing around with work or our racing brain has overlooked them.
The pandemic has given us all a new view of the world and made us take stock of ourselves. Most of us have reprioritised our lives, or at least thought about it. We have realised the importance of family and friends and being there for one another. We have realised who are friends are, and unfortunately taken note of those who haven’t seemed to care, or at least have been too rapped up in their own problems to notice we are struggling. So do you still feel a little lost? Or maybe you feel totally lost? Or like you want to throw in the towel? - please don’t. There is only one person who can fill that void, that lost feeling. There is only one person who can calm our soul. There is only one answer to the muddle and confusion of the pandemic. That person’s name is Jesus. Do you know him? Would you like to know him more? Trust me he is the answer. Try talking to him he will respond if you give him a chance.
