Prone to Wander.

Today my little 7 year old neighbor ran away from home. Well, I guess he didn't run away. Luke has special needs and he wandered so far from home that he didn't know how to get back.

I heard that he was missing about 30 minutes after he had left his house. The last anyone had seen of him, he'd taken his little bag of golf clubs and walked out to his yard. A while later, when his family went looking for him he was nowhere in sight.

We fanned out searching the neighborhood. His mom called the police. My brother searched the woods behind our house. I ran through the neighborhood, stopping to ask anyone I saw if they'd seen Luke. They hadn't.

After 45 minutes of frantic searching, I got word that they'd found him. He was more than a mile from home. Hiding in a stranger's dark basement. It wasn't until a squad car triumphantly delivered Luke to his mom, that I realized how much Luke's little "afternoon adventure" parallels my life.

I'm given more than I could ever dream of asking for in my relationship with Jesus. Really and truly, "My cup runneth over" (Psalm 23:5). I am blessed so far beyond what I am even capable of fathoming. And yet, I still find myself distracted by lesser things.

Like Luke who left his backyard, his dog, his siblings, his sweet mom, and the comfort and safety of home to simply wander into someone else's dark basement, I forsake everything of any importance when I'm not content to simply abide in Christ.

I'm reminded of the final verse of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing":


O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above


I am so prone to wander. My sinful heart lusts after things of this world: material things, success, academics, popularity....the list goes on and on. And sometimes when I wander too far, like Luke, I can't find my way back. I become so entangled in apathy that it takes me captive. And I'm powerless to escape. I can't do it on my own. I need Jesus to save me.

And that's when the beauty of the Gospel shines most clearly in my life. When I wander, it's only by the grace of God that I ever find my way back. Just as it was the first day that Christ captured my heart, He sought me out. That same hymn speaks to this part of my life too:

Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

In the same way that I was in no way responsible for finding my own way to salvation, I'm also not the one responsible for securing my salvation. In John 10, Jesus give me assurance of his role in holding my heart once I am His:

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." (John 10:27-30)

I wish I could say that I plan never to stray again, but my heart is sinful. I know it is. I'm just thankful that God provides such beautiful, tangible pictures of his grace. And that Christ provides assurance that even when I wander like Luke, He will never forsake me. He holds me in His hand, and nothing, nothing can ever change that.

As is so eloquently expressed in 2 Corinthians 12:9, in Paul's Second Epistle to the Church of Corinth:

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."


Yes, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness. For in my broken inability to lead a blameless life and to cling unfailingly to Jesus, the power of his Gospel of Grace shines the most clearly.