Have you ever felt lost? Disoriented? Having no sense of direction?
I experienced this on my recent summer vacation. Surprisingly, we did not get lost driving through four provinces to our east coast destination. We had Google Maps and road signs which were excellent in guiding us there and back again.
(7 mins. reading time)
What struck me the most about the experience I am about to describe is how easily I became disorientated in an environment with no markings or reference points.
As I wrap up my thoughts on Psalm 1, one of the primary themes that stood out to me is the metaphor of the pathway. There is a path for the godly and God has marked the path, so we don’t wander aimlessly or get lost. We always have the choice to follow the marked-out path or go our own way. God knows where they will lead to.
My Adventure
My adventure began in my grandson’s backyard. Our daughter’s family lives in rural Nova Scotia, and there is a forest behind theirs and the neighbouring houses. My 4½ year old grandson decided to take me for a walk into the woods. We walked through the trees and ferns away from the house until we could no longer hear the occasional car on the nearby road. After about ten minutes I decided we had ventured far enough, and it was time to turn around and head back to the house. Our hiking had been done through the trees over fern and moss-covered ground without any trail or markings. I was confident that turning 180 degrees and marching back in a relatively straight line would return us to the backyard.
Where did this come from?
Shortly after turning around and heading back we came across a well-worn trail that ran perpendicular to our heading. I was perplexed. I didn’t remember crossing a path when we were heading in the opposite direction. Where did it come from? Where did it lead to? Maybe we weren’t moving in a straight line after all.
While I had become somewhat disorientated, at this point I felt I had a sense of where this newfound path would lead. If we turned right, I was certain that we would eventually end up at a nearby sideroad. We headed that way for a few minutes. We found more trees and ferns, but no backyards or other signs of civilization. Then I had a random gut feeling that this direction was taking us further away from the sideroad instead of bringing us closer. We turned around and walked in the opposite direction for at least twenty or thirty minutes. More trees and ferns but no markers to guide us back to people.
I don’t know exactly how long we were wandering because I neglected to bring my cell phone, and I wasn’t wearing a watch. I couldn’t open Google Maps and see our location on a map relative to the house. I also could not alert anyone that we might be lost. Around that time, I tripped and fell on my backside (sandals are not good hiking footwear). When I looked back to my grandson, he was laughing at me. My grandson was having a fun time hiking in the woods with his Poppa – not a care in the world or any reason for concern.
The sky was overcast and since I could not see or hear anything that would help to orient our current location, I came to the realization that we were utterly lost, completely disorientated and alone in the woods, surrounded by trees and ferns, chirping birds, and walking on a path that led to who knows where. How long had we been gone? Did anyone realize we might be lost? Should we keep going on the path or turn around and try the opposite direction again? There was nothing to point us in the right direction. My intuition had been completely unreliable in the woods. My sense of direction had been scrambled like whipping cream being beaten by a mixer.
I decided to continue in the same direction and to keep looking for a marker to orient myself. The path took us along the top of a ravine, where I eventually spotted a wooden lookoff someone had built on the opposite side of the creek. I hoped that the lookoff was part of someone’s property which meant that there was likely a house and a road. With the only other option of walking further on an unknown path, we made our way down one side of the ravine, crossed the creek, and up the other side of the ravine to the lookoff. Still oblivious to our situation my grandson took advantage of the opportunity to throw some stones into the creek. And I got an opportunity to catch my breath.
Just beyond the lookoff we found a backyard that included a tractor, a riding lawnmower, and an ATV all on display for my grandson to admire. He was having a great time! What an adventure with Poppa! I was relieved to make it back to civilization, and based on my internal compass, which was completely mixed up, I believed that we came out some distance south from my grandson’s home. Our exit point from the forest was 350m north of the house. I had been completely disorientated.
There were a few questions that I needed answered to help me comprehend the scale and scope of what we had just experienced.
Following Intuition
What would have happened if I had stuck with my initial direction on the path? After about five minutes on the path, we would have come across the backyard of a house on the nearby side road. We would have saved over half an hour of aimless wandering.
What would have happened if I had stuck with my second intuition of going in the opposite direction on the same path. The path, it turns out, is a 4-kilometre loop in the woods with no exit or entry point. This loop path that I stumbled across in the woods combined with my changing intuition about which way to go, reminded me of Proverbs 16:25, “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” I honestly believed that I knew which direction I was heading but I was caught in loop with no exit point.
If at first you don’t succeed, try again
A few days after we got lost, my grandson wanted to take me on another walk into the same woods. This time I took two precautions. First, I brought orange flagging tape to mark trees every 10 metres so that we could successfully navigate the way back and forth between the loop trail and the backyard. Second, I brought my cell phone so that I could communicate as well as orient my current position in the woods to the house.
Like my aimless wandering in the woods, without God’s wisdom and guidance, we can easily be fooled into walking along the wrong pathway. God has marked the pathway for us to walk in and we receive insight and direction by meditating on his words.
In Proverbs 3, Solomon advised to seek the Lord in all our plans, instead of relying solely on our own instincts.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
The point is not to throw out or ignore our own understanding but to seek God’s will first in all we do. It’s like having access to a cell phone or a drone but refusing to use it because we trust our own instincts instead. The message from Psalm 1 is that God has provided both the markers and the maps in his words and in Jesus. My adventure demonstrated to me that it’s very easy to get disoriented and lost without markers or maps.
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What an adventure Henry! I can only image your feelings of dread and responsibility. Thanks for sharing this very practical illustration of not leaning on intuition and our own understanding. It will be well worth keeping to memory.
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When I first realized that we were lost, the best way to describe my emotions is that is was very surreal. I don’t ever remember being lost like this plus I was now responsible for my grandson. His parents were very gracious to me when we finally came back.
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