It was dark when I left home, so very dark. I was going to meet my daughter at her shop. It is only a twenty minute drive. I chose to take the route my husband had showed me using the back roads. But it was early in the morning, the sun had not yet risen and it was dark, so very dark.
As soon as I turned onto the back roads I began to wonder if this was really the best route. It was so dark that I was unable to see any familiar landmarks. My headlights showed only the road directly in front of me, so when the road split I wasn’t sure if I had gone the correct way. I could feel myself gripping the steering wheel tighter and tighter. I could feel the tension in my shoulders and neck as I drove further and further into the darkness.
Finally, I came to the conclusion that I was lost. I didn’t know where I was, nor did I have any idea how to get back onto the right path. I carefully pulled over to the side of the road and turned on my GPS. But I was so far out in the country that I had no service. I sat there for a moment feeling very lost and trying to think of what to do next.
Though I was still unable to see anything around me, what I knew was that I was going in the wrong direction. I knew that if I kept going the wrong way I’d simply get more and more lost, so I carefully turned my car around. To be honest, I still didn’t know where I was, but I was hoping that perhaps I would get to a place where my GPS would work. Finally, I was able to connect. It took me one hour to make a twenty minute trip. But at last I finally made my destination. Had I continued to go in the wrong direction I would have never found where I was going.
In the book of Mark the first words we hear Jesus say are, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news” ( Mark 1:15)! The word repent means turn around. If you're going in the wrong direction you won’t get there. You may feel like I did when I was lost in the dark on unfamiliar roads and wasn’t sure how to get back. Here is the good news: Jesus came to seek and save the lost. You can only truly know how good that news is if you have experienced how it feels to be lost and alone in the darkness, going in a direction that is taking you away from the kingdom of God.
