Mormon 5:17-18 -- On Getting Lost, and Being Found

"They were once a delightsome people, and they had Christ for their shepherd; yea, they were led even by God the Father.
But now, behold, they are led about by Satan, even as chaff is driven before the wind, or as a vessel is tossed about upon the waves, without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her; and even as she is, so are they."
Mormon 5:17-18


This was interesting to me today because it points out that losing God in our lives leads to directionless chaos... and so when we feel some of that creeping in, that is the exact time that we should be turning to the Lord for help. It's when we trust in ourselves too much and stop relying on the Lord for guidance that it is easy to become lost.

Being lost is scary. Like the dark and dreary waste of Lehi's dream, it is hard to find a way out or even a point in the distance to work towards... but at any time, if we stop as he did and pray and plead to the Lord for help, he will lead us in the right direction. Once we get out of that fog then we have choices for not falling back into it as well... we can keep the scriptures as essential guidance for the storms of life, we can encourage others to come to God rather than running towards the great and spacious building, we can do all we can for others and build them up to be as resilient as possible... but at the core, all of the other things in life are assisting us with that first idea... to lead us to Christ. To find a goal in the wastelands of our lifes and to give us that purpose and hope that things won't always be the way they are when we feel lost.

Today, let's remember, whether currently on or off the path, that God is the source of our hope and the true goal of our lives. With him, we can have direction and confidence and we can find rest, and move towards that happy ending that we are all headed for, if we keep turning the pages through the desert chapters, knowing that the pure and clean fountain of water is on the other side, waiting to fill us with eternal hope and joy and love. Sometimes the plot can get crazy, but with God as our author and guide, the true and good ending is always there, beckoning us to purpose and hope and away from the directionless quicksand that we find way too often before us.