The Lost Art of Getting Lost…

The Lord will guide you continually…Isaiah 58:11

The Lost Art of Getting Lost:

I admire technology as much as the next spec-crazed, review (over)reading consumer of electronic gadgets. I’m always looking for ways to enhance my life with the latest USB blessing. But I also feel the constant tension between my modern quest for convenience and the ancient in-built wisdom to hold lightly that which can break down at any given second. That is why I still carry a small notebook and pen even though the phone in the same pocket can nearly read my mind.

On a recent journey to an unfamiliar area of town, I soon became depressed by my digital dependence on a 3inch screen to tell me what to do next. Instead of asking a local for directions or examining the simple signs around me, I let my fingers do the exploring for me. I got where I intended to go in the end, but I felt like a missed something along the way.

The experience reminded me of how the virtue of being lost actually made room for many surprise discoveries and unplanned friendships; all because I had to ask for help. I could fill a hundred hard drives with stories of amazing experiences where I simply asked God to direct my steps in unknown situations that would alter life my life forever. It makes me wonder what will happen to us all after every city and village in the world has a 3D map and “I got lost” will no longer be an adequate excuse for being late.

When was the last time you prayed for guidance or asked a stranger for information in an easily Google-able situation?

I love the training guidelines of Jesus’ disciples who were sent in pairs to various territories: NO FOOD – NO MONEY – NO SPARE SHOES! He sent them off in a way that would force them to trust God and to be dependant on the assistance of others along the way, especially within their small team of 2.

Exercises like this are not strictly for potential ‘full-time’ ‘missionaries’, but for anyone who would like to see God surprise them with new directions and unexpected provision in their day to days. I dare some of you to go somewhere new this week without printing out the step by step directions first. Or try taking a different route home or going to an unknown place for lunch (without reading a review first).

I’m not against the routines and rhythms that help make life bearable, but I know there are great experiences just waiting happen outside the walls of our own self-sufficiency. Can we actually program randomness back into a daily experience of faith? I dare to suggest that God’s Spirit has more fun guiding feet to discovery than just leading fingers to information.

Just because the world is thoroughly mapped, doesn’t mean there is nothing left to find…

Sincerely,
Lost and Found Munoz
Freedomhouse Church, London

PS: Freedomhouse is moving to a new venue this Sunday! Please pray for us as we enter this new season of faith, challenge and discovery.PPS: I am wondering whether to email our members the directions or let them truly discover the joys of being lost;)