How to Stay Lost and Unfound

“But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and Jambres.”—2 Timothy 3:9 (NLT)

“I think this is our exit,” she says. “If we don’t take this exit now, we’ll be late to dinner.” She is annoyed by tardiness of any kind.

“I got this,” I tell her. “The next exit will work. I know an old shortcut.” I hate being corrected. I like to be right. I turned up the radio.

It turned out that the road had been completely rerouted and my old shortcut didn’t exist anymore. We were completely lost, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and there was nothing I could do about it. My chance to make the smart choice has passed. My wife doesn’t say, “I told you so.” She doesn’t have to.

Self-deception is the worst kind of deception. Not while you’re actually going through it though. While you’re in the middle, believing your lie, you’re fat, dumb, and happy. Ignorance is bliss, they say.

Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses with their lies. They were so caught up in the buzz they created with their magic that they didn’t know how close to the end their time had come. They were reading the wrong road map and didn’t realize it. Plagues were coming. They were clueless about the miraculous shock and awe that was coming from the Creator of the Universe.

Often, when you’re lost, you don’t know you need to be found. You’re not open to correction because that takes humility and admitting error. My friend, these are things you have very little experience with.

Ignorance is bliss? Ignorance leads to further lost-ness. We’re better off following the example of zealous young atheists. There is an interesting plot-twist in so many atheists’ stories; C.S. Lewis is one that comes to mind. In his zeal to prove the “falsity” of Christianity, he thoroughly investigated the facts; he processed truth. Truth brings the honest searcher to both the historic and metaphoric foot of the cross where real decisions must be made. Men like C.S. Lewis, and in our generation, Lee Strobel, embrace the One they set out to disprove. The wonderful irony is they themselves became found.

We should make it a life-rule to never prove our own right-ness, especially at the expense of the truth. If you don’t find a map and get back on course, you will stay lost and you may find out after it’s too late.