Life before MapQuest is a volume of true stories where I often found myself far away from my intended destination. In the beginning there was no cell phone to talk me onto the right road.  Crying daughters missed the birthday party, a fifty mile trip to find our new bank, honking down a policeman in a treacherous neighborhood and then hearing him laughing on his speaker about some “lady” he was waving onto the interstate twenty miles from my exit- just to name a few.  When cell phones became part of life I had several people who so regularly “directed me” they answered asking “Where are you now?”  Mom and I drove places all the time and having been the navigator with the map her entire life she could not understand how I missed receiving the gene that gives you a sense of direction!  She learned to laugh about it and loved telling her own stories about us being “lost again”.

 
There are different emotional responses that emerged when I acknowledged being lost.  When under time pressure or affecting the lives of others (not finding the birthday party) I would become upset and angry with myself or the person who gave me directions.  Other times frightened when like a mouse in a maze I momentarily felt I would never find my way.  However, there also developed an adventuresome spirit of exploration.  I would focus on discovering places I’d never seen and enjoy the ride.  This “lost” game has been played with my husband, children, mother and most recently my grandchildren on grandma camp trips! 

 Today I find myself lost again.  Not behind the wheel of a car on the highway, but contemplating my future and what life has ahead.  In the past year I have talked with people of all ages struggling with that very issue.  What used to be a sure thing in our country no longer is.  Job raises, security, and retirement plans are no longer part of the deal.  People who used to dream big dreams are thankful to be eating with a roof over their heads.  Always the optimist I am holding out for another dream, but finding myself unwilling to work too hard to make it happen.  I recognize the error of my thinking and yet am watching people working themselves literally into the loss of their health and getting no where.  Putting aside anger, frustration, fear, and blame I have decided upon the adventuresome spirit of exploration.  Gloria Gaither said it so well when she declared in her children’s song:

I am a promise,
I am a possibility
I am a promise with a capital "P"!
I am a great big bundle of potentiality!
And I am learning to hear God's voice and I am tryin'
To make the right choices;
I'm a promise to be anything God wants me to be!

I don’t know about you, but I am reminded today that now and forever I am God’s kid. I don’t feel lost now and have found my new theme song………..