On Thursday night, on the way home from work, I saw a young man walking on the side of the road. I live in the sticks, so it’s not a real normal place to be walking to begin with.  And I took a closer look and the figure seemed familiar. I got dropped off at home (I carpool), and hopped in my car and went back to investigate.

By now it was dark and was hard to see, but I saw my friend and stopped. Sure enough it was him.  A teenage friend of mine.  He had been walking for five hours, trying to make it home. I figured he had covered about 15 miles, and was still about 10 miles away from his house. He was thankful for the ride, and I was glad I found him.

Being a kid, he didn’t really know what he was getting himself into, trying to walk from one city to another.

Sometimes in life, there is a temptation to wander.

To just go off on our own in some unfamiliar direction. We aren’t really trying to dive into sin, just do things on our own. But the thing is, we don’t realize what we are going to quickly get in over our heads.

Not only did my friend miscalculate the distance, he didn’t really know how to get home either.
He had a hard time giving me directions to his house.

The Christian life, the confession that we must make daily is this:

Lord, I’m in over my head.
I can’t do this on my own.

Maybe you have seen that pseudo spiritual/intellectual/new age-y bumpersticker before:

Not all who wander are lost…

Not true.
We can’t make it on our own.
We are lost without Jesus.

I think one of my all time favorite sections of scripture is John 15.
Jesus lays it out so clearly.

“Apart from me, you can do nothing”.  (John 15:5)

This is truth my friends!

Don’t wander.
Don’t try to figure things out on your own.
You can’t, and you will just end up frustrated, tired, and lost.

But if you do, know this:
Your Lord will come looking for you.

He is the good Shepherd.
He isn’t going to let you run for very long.