Have you ever been lost? I mean, really lost? I’m not speaking about getting separated from your family or friends in Walmart, or the mall. I realize that those instances can cause a great deal of anxiety, but they are not the kind of lostness I am talking about. I am talking about terrifying, heart-pounding, panic-attack inducing, life-threatening, lostness.

Lost – a real, excruciating time in which you feel hopeless and helpless. A lostness during which you are separated from your party. A lostness in which every turn looks the same. A lostness with no signs of anything familiar. A lostness during which you feel as if you are going around in circles, making no progress toward any point of reference that looks like it might provide a way of escape.

You call out as you walk, listening for a response, but silence is the only response you get. You are all alone. Darkness begins to set in. The light of day is quickly ebbing away. The shadows grow longer as the sun sets over the horizon. You become more anxious with each passing minute. You begin to strain to see through the deepening darkness.

You begin to question yourself, especially your sense of direction. The darkness is becoming so “thick” you can almost feel it. You begin to call out with more intensity, your voice becoming raspy due to your screaming so loud and so long. But the only response you hear is, again, silence.

Total darkness has now set in. Clouds cover any light from the moon and stars that might have otherwise given some assistance to your night vision. The only sounds you hear as those of an owl in a nearby tree, and what you think might be the howling of a coyote in the distance.

You finally resolve yourself to the fact that you are totally, completely, hopelessly and helplessly, lost. You find a fallen tree where you sit down to rest, and think. Think. Think. Think. As you think you remember a steep hill you had descended just a short distance away. You think that maybe, just maybe, if you could climb to a higher point you might be able to see any source of light farther down in the valley. So, you begin to walk again, this time going back in what you think is the direction from which you descended. You climb for a while and finally come into a clearing where you can see over the tops of the trees. As you turn your gaze slowly in a circular motion, your eyes catch the sight of a light in the far-off distance. It’s not much light, but enough to give you a sensation of hope.

But that hope quickly abates as you think about the fact that as soon as you begin your descent in the direction of the light, your line of sight will soon be blocked by the towering trees. But after more thought, you realize that that one, solitary source of light is the only hope you have. So, as best you can, you start off in the direction of the light.

As you walk through the darkness, there are moments in which you are eerily engulfed in the thick fingers of night. There are moments when you can’t see the light, and you fear that you might get turned around and lose your way. But then, thankfully, you come into a clearing just large enough for you to once again see the light and get your bearings. Each time you lose sight of the light, and then find it again it is just a little larger and brighter.

Hope begins to well up in your heart as you think that you might be on the verge of finding your way out of your dilemma. Once again you move into an area in which your view of the light is cut off. Darkness once again engulfs you. Once again, a feeling of momentary hopelessness begins to take control of your mind.

But this time it is short-lived, because you come to another clearing, and you find yourself standing just feet away from the light. You almost scream with delight as you realize that you are just a few steps away from what you hope will be a source of help. As you walk to the door and begin to knock, you are met by an aged couple who welcome you in, take you immediately to the wood-burning stove, give you a cup of soothing hot chocolate, and listen caringly as you share the details of your harrowing experience.

That would certainly be a harrowing experience to go through, for sure. But, needless to say, that story comes nowhere near the reality of the horror of being spiritually lost, separated from God, with no hope beyond the grave. This was a story about being lost for a few hours. Being lost forever, for eternity, in the horrors of hell is so much worse. Words cannot begin to describe the torment one will experience if they were to die without Christ.

They would be ushered immediately in a Christless, Godless, existence. Jesus described it as a place where the worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched. It is a place of eternal torment for those who choose to reject God’s offer of salvation which is provided through the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

Have you accepted this most amazing offer? Have you confessed to God that you are a sinner in need of salvation, and acknowledged that you believe Jesus is the only means of supplying the saving grace you desperately need? If not, please, please, don’t wait until it is eternally too late. Accept His gift now, while there is still time. Don’t let the darkness of sin keep you out of God’s provision of eternity with Him.

Blessings!