Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

Psalms 139:7-12

I like stories.

I like the details that fill the stories.

And I love the end of a story.

I love when everything comes together; heroes conquer; beauty is restored; truth crushes the lie.

I dream in stories.

I think in stories.

I talk in stories.

Everything connects to something else.

There is a beginning, an intense in between, and a glorious ending.

My whole existence revolves around stories.

My entire faith is based on a story.

Jesus the hero.

God the powerful and noble.

The Spirit of truth and comfort.

This is a story of creation.

Of selfish gain.

Of redemption.

Of wandering.

Of pursuit.

Of fear.

Of lonliness.

Of questioning.

Of forgiveness.

Of going the wrong way.

Of being blinded to find the right Way again.

Of uncertainty.

Of healing.

Of being beaten.

Of being saved.

Of deception.

Of betrayl.

Of weeping.

Of joy.

Of mercy.

Of hope.

Of promise.

Of life.

Overflowing life.

This makes me think of a quote I read by JRR Tolkien.

"Not all who wander are lost."

Beautiful.

Faith is a journey.

At times I am truly wandering.

I seem aimless.

Uncertain.

I am perilously close to wandering right off a cliff.

But I am not lost.

Wherever I am; whatever I am encountering, it is for one thing only.

My deliverance.

When my husband left and I couldn't figure out how to put one foot in front of the other, I was stuck in the grip of God's love.

When I tried to take my own life, I was swirling around in the whirlwind of God's love.

When I am tired and lonely and distraught, I am staring straight into the brightness of God's love.

Because there is nowhere I could run; nothing I could do to escape God's love.

This is why I love stories.

This is why faith IS a story.

We are still being written.

And all of these weird, crazy, awful details will come to a point of glorious deliverance in the end.

Even though we are wandering, we are not lost.