Getting lost is almost always the highlight of any vacation. Oh, the stories you can tell when you get back home of how the GPS took you to a corn field instead of the amusement park! Or the time you got off the wrong exit and ended up in a scary neighborhood with street hoodlums sizing you up as available prey. Getting lost is exhilarating, so why leave it to chance? You should plan on getting lost, so you can have hair-raising stories to post to social media. Here is my recommendation for how to get lost and have a good story to tell.

1. Follow GPS. This tracking device is sure to get you lost. I call it “Great Panic Source.” GPS sends an elderly man into a sandpile. A teenage girl is directed to drive down a boat ramp into a lake. A limo driver follows GPS down a flight of stairs. GPS nearly sends a driver off a cliff. These are the kinds of stories that will endure the test of time.

2. Use a paper map. I know you still have them. Get out that old atlas and plot your destination. You might need a microscope to read the road names, but they are there; you just have to hunt for them. Never mind that not all the side roads are listed. It was intended that way to help you get lost.

3. Ask someone for directions. This is by far the easiest way to get lost. The guy at the gas station has no idea what you are talking about, and he will send you out of your way as a convenience to himself.

4. Take a shortcut. Shortcuts rank number one among the ways to get lost quickly and thoroughly. The typical shortcut requires triple the time of the long way around.

Now that you have mastered the art of getting lost and the joy of telling others about your experience, it is time to sit down and ponder. What is more exhilarating: getting lost or being found? Granted there is nothing like the panic of not knowing where you are or how to find your way. But being lost and then finding your way ranks right up there with some of the best experiences in life.

In the story of the prodigal son in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, we read about two lost sons. One was lost physically because he chose to leave his father and follow his own guidance system. His ideas of where to go and what to be had led him to a dark place he never imagined. The story reveals he lost his way and ended up feeding pigs, and it was there that he came to his senses. Getting lost was not the thrill he expected. He came to the realization that he was lost and needed to retrace his steps back home to his father where he could be found.

The older brother was lost too; he was spiritually lost. He was estranged from his father, which was shown by his anger and refusal to enter the house and join the party for his returned brother. The older brother revealed a resentment toward his father and brother that was kept secret in his heart. The party for the prodigal brother revealed to his father the hypocrite the older son was. The father said to the older brother, “We had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:32 NIV). We are not told if the older brother came to his senses and was found. What we are left with is the joy of finding one’s way back to the father.

I think we would all agree that getting lost is no fun. It creates anxiety, frustration, and panic. Being found and finding one’s way is joyful, exciting, and lifegiving. I have found that to be true in my own life. Once I was really lost and didn’t even know it, but thankfully, Jesus found me. Not a day goes by but that I don’t celebrate being found 60 years ago.

Rev. David Mansfield, retired Disciples of Christ pastor