"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?" -Luke 9:24-25 (ESV)

I've never had the need for a GPS before.  There are a few reasons for this.  I'm known for going nowhere.  I also like to get lost.  I take that phrase quite literally.  Although the two seem to be contradictory, they go hand-in-hand for me.  I go nowhere and get lost right where I am.  That's called "daydreaming."

A lot of my dreams have come true over the past few years.  My two daughters are my inspiration.  I found the job I was looking for at World Team.  I finally got out of the cramped two bedroom apartment into a four bedroom three story house.  Yet, I feel a lot of the time that I've settled for mediocre.  It's a fear of the unknown that prevents me from stepping out in faith a lot of the time.

As I was taking my girls to Awana's tonight, Naomi said out of the blue "the moon is God."  After making Naomi repeat it just in case my ears were deceiving me, I wanted to know who told her that.  In her child-like innocence, she proclaimed "my teacher told me."  Turned out that her "teacher" was another fellow 6-year old classmate. 

Of course, Lydia hears this and responds, "God is not the moon because he's not shaped like a circle!"  Earlier in the day, she woke up shouting "Daddy buddy!" about 10 times just to turn on a light that she can reach.  I was at work and when my wife came to the rescue. Lydia responded "Not you!  You say I'm a big girl, but Daddy is my buddy."  Yeah, I'm a sucker for being the center of her universe.

Naomi has her sights set on the sky.  Lydia has her sights set on her dad.  It is my responsibility to set their eyes on Jesus.  However, my parental instincts kick in and anxiety hits.  Knowing the struggles I've gone through and how ill-prepared I've been to face them, how am I going to protect my girls from the evil one?

The GPS we can get for our cars is really nice and all, but don't we really need a GPS for life?  I've tried to fabricate one myself, but it keeps defecting.  The error I keep getting is, "STOP.  You are lost.  Return to Manufacturer."  Then it shuts off.

Does anybody know how to fix this problem?  I set my sights on pursuing my goals, focusing on the family as Dr. Dobson wants me to do, and building relationships of the people that I love.  Yet, my goals hit bumps in the road and I'm so far behind on where I planned to be at 30 years old.  My family is precious to me, but I find myself operating like a single parent most of the time and trying to juggle way too much.  I fear I'm missing out on much more.  The relationships I'm building are bittersweet because my heart breaks when I discover just how broken and hurt people are - just like me. 

There's got to be a way around that error message.  I'm a guy, so naturally I hate reading instructions.  Since I can't figure it out, I root around for the manual.  It reads "Holy Bible" on the cover and it's massive.  You expect me to read all that? 

I did a quick internet search for "lost" on BlueLetterBible.org and came to Luke 9:24-25.  It appears we need to find ourselves first.  And just like my broken GPS, it drives me back to the Manufacturer. 

Through all that we face in this journey called life, we cling to the Creator and Sustainer of all things.  For we were lost when He saw fit to send us His Son to redeem us from all sin.  No matter where we try to set our GPS, He drives us back to Him crying for grace and mercy.  May we not take our eyes off Jesus and what He's done for us.