I love the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes – the little boy and his stuffed tiger for the ones that don’t know it by name. My all-time favorite is a June 13, 1992 strip (yes, I had to look it up) where for the first 2 panels, Calvin is burping a huge, window-rattling burp. The third panel his mother yells at him and asks what he has to say after something like that. He replies, “great diaphragm control, huh?” The last panel shows him sitting on his bed, obviously sent to his room in trouble, saying, “when I’m a great soloist, she’ll be sorry.” Granted, it’s a visual joke – being a comic strip and all – but I love it (and most of you aren’t surprised that it’s THIS one that’s my favorite). But I have them emailed to me every day. And like most strips, there are little stories. Each strip tells a piece of a broader story arc. On one particular arc, Calvin & Hobbes are at the zoo. The first panel shows him talking to his mom who is wearing a black skirt. Then when see him walking around the zoo gawking at all he sees while the black skirt is in front of him. But then he notices that the woman in front of him isn’t his mother! And now he is LOST! She asks him what his mother looks like and he says, “from the knees down, she looks just like you”.
How often have I done that in my own life? I get too busy looking at everything around me…work, soccer, friends, work, even church activities…but I get so busy looking at everything going on around me that I take my eyes off the one I should be following. Ever been there? You think you’re right in His footsteps – but you’re not actually actively looking at Him – just generally going along thinking you’re behind Him. But somewhere along the way, the path turned, and He turned with it, but we missed it…drove off the road…lost in the wilderness. We were so busy looking at everything else that we forgot to actually look AT Jesus. And there’s moment of realization that you’ve wandered off the path. You have that “how did it get this far?” moment. You think you’re so far lost that you’ll never find your way back to the path. Lost, just lost. Despair hits you. You start saying things like “if ever went back to church, the roof would collapse on me.” And in the process, you undervalue the amount that Jesus was willing to pay for you, and you undermine the power of Jesus’ blood to cover your sins…whatever they are.
But do you know what you have to do? It’s really simple. Just admit you’re lost. Stop trying to get YOURSELF unlost (yes, I just made up that word, but you got the point). You’re the one that got you in this boat to begin with, so just stop saving yourself. And then yell for help for all you’re worth!. Cry out to Jesus, if you will. He knows you’re lost. He saw you get that way.
Quick personal illustration time. Way back when, my dad and I where hunting up in the Ozarks. Beautiful country up there, by the way. But we were hunting on the side of this mountain, walked all through trees and brush and who knows what looking for squirrels that we’d heard barking in the distance, and then dad asked me if I could get us back to the trail where we’d parked the motorcycles. Well I knew everything, so I could SURELY get us back to the little path we’d walked away from. We were standing next to a fence, so I started leading the way away from the fence. And in my mind it was Sergeant Dwayne and his battered troops returning from the war – I was like 14, not like I was doing this at 30. Well, maybe I did stuff like this at 30, but THIS time, I was only about 14. But here were the troops – guns in hand, almost out of ammo, and I was single-handedly leading them out of the wilderness and heading for home. Weary, hungry, lonely they were finally going to fight our way out and…”Hey! Here’s another fence!” is what I said when I stopped visualizing military glory and realized what I was seeing. Dad just laughed. He knew what I had been doing all along. I’d started out walking away from the fence, and for the past 15 minutes, I’d slowly been curving us in a big circle leading us right back towards it. “That’s the same fence…I’ve been watching you walk slowly to your left, the farther you walked around this mountain. Every brush pile you went around, every tree you avoided, your circled us a little more to the left.” And then he led me to the road…Back to the bikes and the way out.
It’s the exact same thing with the Cross. We take our eyes off of where we’re headed…and we slowly start that circle back to where we started. The sinful nature, they call it. Selfish desires. We slowly start that circle back to what we want and not what God wants. But when we see that fence…and realize that we’ve completely circled back. Jesus already knows it. Just like my dad, sometimes He’s followed right along behind you. Watching you circle around and trying whisper in your ear to turn around. And sometimes He knows that we’re stubborn people and lets us wander on our own. And He’ll stop and wait for us…calls us back to the path if we’ll listen for His calling. Like the parable of the shepherd, He leaves the 99 that are safe to go and get the one that has wandered away. And the lost sheep recognizes the Master’s voice. But if that lost sheep keeps trying to finding its own way out, it’s only keeps getting more and more lost. So when you get THAT lost…just can NOT find your way back. Just stop and cry for help. Jesus will get you back on the path. Take you by the hand and help you out of your struggles with sin. But just as important as not trying to find your own solution is actually wanting to be found. Don’t cry for help, then continue to struggle against Him when He takes your hand.
Listen for the Whisper that leads you home when you’re lost. But more than that think about how much easier it would have been better if we’d been following closely enough to not get lost in the first place. The world is full of distractions, and (like Calvin at the zoo) if we only keep glancing at the One who leads us, we might get tricked into following the wrong shepherd. When the devil tempted Jesus, he did it with Scripture. 2 Corinthians tells us that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So how closely are we following? Are we following just closely enough to hopefully kind of keep up, or are we holding onto Jesus’ hand everywhere we go? Because from the knees down, Satan can try and look just like Him. Don’t try to be like a kid at the store…close enough to see mom, but trying to stay far enough away to still find mischief and be out of swatting distance. Walk hand-in-hand with Jesus…everywhere you go. And like a cloud in the daytime and a pillar of fire at night, you’ll clearly see the path you’re walking together. And you’ll never walk it alone.
~Dwayne
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