Well, welcome back again to another podcast of Struggling Well. We're glad that you've joined us or that we think you've joined us. At least we're recording it like you're going to join us. And Suzi, what do you want to share us with share with us this morning?
Before I get into that, I do want to do a little shout out. we have an a beautiful family. Not I'm not talking about our immediate family, although they're wonderful. Like our kids are great, son-in-law is great, grandkids are great, but we have aunts and uncles to our kids that we cherish. And I have two sister-in-laws that I that have treated me like a sister my whole life with them and I just want them to both know both Christy and Beth how much I love them and how much they have encouraged me in my walk and we three girls had in common our deep love for your mom and Beth who is your actual sister u has never made me feel nor feel like we are anything but real sisters. And we knew that Beth was the adored child because she was so cute and she still is. However, those girls have treated me like a sister for years and I'm so thankful for that. I'm really
Plus, they also both listen to the podcast and we're grateful for that, too.
Yes. And we'd like you to send a big fat check. No, we're kidding. We don't accept checks from anyone anywhere anytime. Well, that's not true, but anyway. All right. Let's talk about what we're going to talk about this morning. it's morning here where we are and I have been thinking a lot in the last few actually probably since December about the idea of being lost. And as Jimmy mentioned, I think last week I had an opportunity to speak to the high school kids at a local Christian school and it has probably been the highlight of my year. when I was first asked, I said no because I thought there's no way I'm going to go I'm you know, I'm not going to go in front of all these kids. They're smarter than ever. They're the right on the cutting edge of my future and their future as leaders. And I just was overwhelmed. But God would not let up on me. And the thing that he kept reminding me of is that at any age and any time, you can get lost. And there's all sorts of there's all kinds of getting lost. Like there's physically getting lost. There's mentally feeling lost in your thoughts. And there's definitely spiritually lost. But I remembered a time and this was a while ago when a friend of mine and I took our kids on a hike and we got terribly lost on this hike. Like it took us by the time we finished the hike had to bum a ride from some strangers to get back to where our car was it was 9 hours. We were lost for a long time. What hit me in the idea of being lost is a couple of things. First of all, I was totally unprepared for that hike. I acted like I knew where we were going, which I did not. Very arrogant of me. We had no compass, no water, no first aid kit, no bug spray, no sunscreen, no snacks, nothing. So imagine 9 hours of hiking in places we didn't know. And what struck me was how unprepared I was for the direction that I thought I was going in. And so as I got to share with these kids, my thoughts went to, you're going to get lost. Some of you kids are going to are getting ready to go to high school. some of you kids are still in school. You're leaving high school. You're going on to college, but you're going to get lost. But here's the problem. Sometimes you're going to feel lost or we all feel lost because we're in a terrible hard place. And we feel the struggle and the confusion of where we're at. And that happens at any age. Then you might be genuinely lost, but you really don't even know it, which is a terrible thing. But you might also get lost because your pride and your arrogance say to you, you got this. And I know that we put on young people a lot of, "Oh, they're so arrogant. They think they know everything. How did we exist without them telling us what to do?" But I'm here to tell you that at my stage in life, I can get really arrogant and think I've got this. Thank you, God. But I can handle this. but I'm so thankful that scripture tells us through the characters that the Holy Spirit has illuminated to us. that there are people that got terribly lost. Before I go there, I'm going to ask babe, did you have you ever gotten lost?
Yeah, I have.
And not that you would admit it.
Yes, I would admit it. I have gotten lost. yeah. It's a time where internally you probably are scrambling, but you try to project that you have it all under control.
Yeah.
And I think that's a great way of looking at where we go when we are lost, either spiritually or physically lost. We scramble but yet we don't necessarily project that on the externals.
You know we have talked often about the story of David and we know how he entered the scene in a big way as a kid just a young kid. He slayed Goliath and we're introduced into to this kid who is unafraid courageous and love God. But as we read further in the story and we track his life we see that he got sidetracked a number of times. He was the king of Israel. He had everything. A great job. He had respect of his peers. He had a family. He was powerful. He was a warrior. He got directions from God. What more could he want? And yet, he lost sight of where he was going. And he ended up terribly lost. And his arrogance and his lack of awareness of where his heart was going brought him to the place of lying, murder, adultery, and ultimately death. He just didn't pay attention to what was happening in his heart. And there's a phrase, it's not a biblical phrase, but people oftenimes think of God of the Trinity as the true north. And I in my studying and preparation to share with these high school kids, I looked at north and true north. What's the difference? And north is north. But if you go on a compass, You'll see that north is not always where you think north is going to be because there is true north. There's magnetic north and then there's true north. Magnetic north can change as the earth shifts. But true north never shifts. And I think a lot about how sometimes in my life I'm headed I think I'm headed north, but have I shifted to where I'm off from just at enough that I have missed true north. And so I think We need to be thinking in terms of are how do we get lost and how do we get back on track? You have any thoughts on that? Because you're looking at me like, "Oh my gosh, Suzi."
No, I think that
or are you just mesmerized by my maleifluous voice?
There you go.
There's a big word.
yeah, true north is what's going to ground me
and keep me grounded. And I think as you were talking about it, true north is pointing my heart towards Christ.
Yeah,
that doesn't shift.
No. The first Peter 1:25 says, "But God's word endures forever." And if ever I have been aware of how much things have changed in the last 5 years in particular, philosophies have changed, concepts have changed, even slang of the day, whether you're a young person or an old person or whatever, everything has changed. So, in a world that is constantly changing and change is good. I mean, you want your neurosurgeon to have more ability than a neurosurgeon of back in the 1700s who is, you know, opening your brain with a screwdriver or some tool. But, but the point is that God's word never changes. So, as we're trying to navigate through life, we've got to know where true north is, where we should be pointing to. And I we can also go back to Adam and Eve. They got offkilter, too, because God had told them everything that he wanted them to know. And he says, "Just don't eat from that one tree." I mean, they had everything. They had dominion over everything. And he says, "But don't eat from that tree." And then they heard that question from the evil one. Really? Did God really? And you know, we've been there many times on our podcast, but what happened was that one question took them off course.
Yeah. And so, you know, in our lives, and our daily lives. It's finding well we know where true north is. It's true. It's pointing ourselves in that direction that God and his word is where we find true north.
So I wonder if those of you that are listening, maybe you are feeling lost right now or maybe you're thinking, "Oh, it's no big deal. I can get back on track." maybe your closest friends don't even know how lost you feel cuz you maybe you're not in that authentic community that we spoke about several weeks ago. Perhaps the circumstances of your life have dropped kicked you into a situation where you are totally undone. Maybe you don't realize how lost you are because you're not even thinking about tomorrow. You're just like, "Oh, well, I'll live today." Or, like I said earlier, maybe your arrogance has led you to believe that you've got it and you don't need God's help. The excellent piece of news that I want to leave you with, that we want to leave you with this morning is You will never be so lost by either choice or circumstances that God will not be coming after you. He's going to take that lostness, those busted up pieces of your life, and he's going to redeem them for his name's sake and for your good. So, where are you headed? Are you headed slightly north? Are you headed to true north? Because no matter where you start, Jesus is our true north, and he's going to lead you to follow the Father, to allow him to indwell you through his spirit and lead you ultimately home.
Thank you and have a great week.