“Where Are You?”

Sunday, June 26, 2022

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Genesis 3.8-11)

The question God directs at Adam is a familiar one, asked for many different reasons in many different scenarios.  In the case of Adam and Eve, God asked them, not because he didn’t know where they were—nothing is hidden to the omniscient and omnipresent God—but in order to play along, so to speak, with his creations’ silly game, and give them an opportunity to own up to what they had done.

At other times, someone might inquire about your location in order to join you there, or to lay plans contingent upon the expected time of your arrival at another location, or still another reason.  But one reason in particular is not so far removed from the cause of God’s question to Adam: perhaps you are lost, and the answer to the question, “where are you?” is the necessary starting point in the quest to find you, or set you back on the proper way.  This happens all the time in the physical realm—getting lost on your way to a job interview in an unfamiliar town, for example.  It also happens in the spiritual realm, in which countless souls wander around, lost in sin.  If you should discover that you’re lost, it’s important to establish a few more facts before proceeding:

Where do you want to go?

The answer to this question may be anything from the broad, “anyplace I recognize!” to something much more narrow, like “the barbecue restaurant on 3^rd Street.”  But if you don’t have a clearly defined goal in mind, you won’t be able to really achieve anything beyond becoming lost in a slightly different locale.  It’s important to determine what criteria would make you no longer lost, and to correctly match those criteria to a location.  If you find yourself lost in sin and destined for destruction, finding the barbecue restaurant isn’t going to help you.  You need to find the sheepfold over which Jesus is “the good shepherd” (Jn 10.11).

Do you have a trustworthy wayfinder?

We’ve all gotten bad directions at one time or another.  A generation ago, a slip of the tongue or the memory could easily send the lost soul down the wrong road, or the right road, but the wrong direction; there were even those who would take pleasure in misleading a wanderer.  Supposed shepherds “have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up” (Is 9.16).  A little more recently, cars started to include GPS navigation, but if the systems didn’t update as roads changed, you could easily follow their instructions to the wrong location, or worse.  Even today, when everyone has a smartphone in his pocket and easy access to constantly updated maps and customized turn-by-turn instructions to get where you want to go, there are occasional mistakes, glitches, and other shortcomings.  This leads, at worst, to a phenomenon called Death by GPS, when someone trusts the phone’s instructions over his own eyes and, for example, turns the wrong way up a one-way street.  How much riskier, when the stakes aren’t just your physical life, but your eternal soul?  Who, or what do you trust to give you reliable instructions?

How do you reach the goal?

With your goal and your wayfinder established, the next thing to define is the pathway.  The exact directions will depend somewhat upon where you are in the first place, which is why it’s so important to assess your current location.  If the goal is Chicago, it matters an awful lot whether you start from 8^th St and Broadway, New York City, or 8^th St and Broadway, Los Angeles.  But in the spiritual realm, while not everyone lost is lost in exactly the same way, for exactly the same reasons, it’s all due to sin, broadly.  The only destination worth reaching is the kingdom of heaven, and while each person’s journey to find the door will be unique, there’s only the one door!  “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Lk 13.24).  How do you reach that door?  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1.15).

Are you willing to follow the map?

But this isn’t about a half-hearted, dismissive, verbal assent.  Saying, “sure, whatever,” is no indication at all of a genuine trust in the guide.  As James 2.19 tells us, “Even the demons believe—and shudder!”  But why is this belief not enough, when Jesus says, “Do not fear, only believe” (Mk 5.36), and Paul says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Ro 10.9)?  For the same reason a person might be lost in a shady part of town, see the signs and maps to guide him back to where the light shines, and choose to stay in the darkness.  Jesus’ and Paul’s statements assume that you want to be found.  But, while this hypothetical person believes he knows the way out of the darkness, he doesn’t believe the light is what’s best for him.  He doesn’t believe the one who tells him there’s a better way.  Like Adam and Eve, he has determined he’d rather remain hidden—lost, in the dark.  What about you?  Are you on the path that leads to life?  Do you really trust your guide?  Are you in the light?  Look around.  Where are you?

Jeremy Nettles

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