the new human is here

The first one is that you can be lost without knowing you're lost.

Like, you can be heading down a road, a path, a decision, a relationship, a way of living that you are so sure is right and good, and you are going as fast as you can and as hard as you can to get down that road only to realize at the end of it, "Oh, no, this is not where I thought it would be.

This is not where I thought I would end up.

This is not what I wanted to do.

This is not who I wanted to become." Like, I was so sure I was right.

I was so sure this was good, and w- we live in a culture that says, "Hey, take any path you want.

Any map will do, as long as you're passionate about it, as long as you try hard, as long as you're true to yourself." [laughs] And yet that same culture is pretty cruel to us when we get to places of failure or disillusionment or down roads we shouldn't have gone, or become people we never thought we'd be, or do things we never thought we'd do, or end up in s- failure of some way, and people are like, "Dummy, how could you do that?" And we fill up social media with all the stories of people who went down what we now see are wrong paths.

We've all been there, and look at, we can all relate to decisions or seasons of life or paths we were so sure we were right.

We were good.

We had no idea we were lost until we got to the end of that road and suddenly went, "Man, how did I get here? What was I thinking?" That's a dangerous way of being lost when we don't even realize we are.

But the other way perhaps we can all relate to in some way is when you get to this place of feeling lost because you don't know where you're trying to go or what to do next, or perhaps you might say, "I don't know who I am or who I am anymore." When I don't know where I'm going, when I don't know what to do next, or I don't know who I am.

And that could be ...

That's not a, that's not an age and stage thing.

You could feel like that when you're 20 or 40 or 60 or 80, and we might even use the terms, "I feel a bit lost." Maybe for some of us, that's at, like, a big picture level where we really kinda don't have a sense of, um, what we should be doing in life or where we should be going, a sense of disorientation, perhaps, at w- what stage we're in or what decision to make.

Maybe it's something very acute, very specific, like, "I'm not sure what to do next," or, "I can't see what the next step is for me," or, "I've just gone through something where suddenly I feel disoriented," or in a season where I don't understand what's going on.

Or perhaps more general and at a baseline level, some of us would say, "Yeah, I feel like I don't know who I am.

Like, I know who others expect me to be, and everyone's telling me I can do this and I can be anything I wanna be, but quite frankly, those words aren't encouraging, they're crushing to me." Or maybe you've gone through a loss or a setback, or maybe things haven't worked out the way you hoped, or sometimes worse, everything has worked out the way you hoped, and you still are at this point going, "I feel a bit lost," or, "I don't know who I am anymore, and s- I, I've achieved everything I thought I would want to achieve, but I still don't feel like that's doing it for me.

What do I do now?" I don't know where this finds you today.

Perhaps you're coming into this place feeling like you're lacking some direction.

Maybe you feel lost in terms of purpose.

Maybe you've gone through some loss.

Maybe you're just in a situation or a decision that feels cloudy, and you're not sure what to do next.

Or maybe you are really questioning the core of who you really are.

Who am I, or who am I now? Or perhaps you're walking alongside someone who is lost or feels lost.

Can I just say that the writers of the gospel, the biographies of Jesus, tell us that this is really good news, that Jesus brings good news to us, that there is good news for those of us [laughs] who feel lost, who are lost, or who may be lost and don't even know we are.

The first one is that you can be lost without knowing you're lost.

Like, you can be heading down a road, a path, a decision, a relationship, a way of living that you are so sure is right and good, and you are going as fast as you can and as hard as you can to get down that road only to realize at the end of it, "Oh, no, this is not where I thought it would be.

This is not where I thought I would end up.

This is not what I wanted to do.

This is not who I wanted to become." Like, I was so sure I was right.

I was so sure this was good, and w- we live in a culture that says, "Hey, take any path you want.

Any map will do, as long as you're passionate about it, as long as you try hard, as long as you're true to yourself." [laughs] And yet that same culture is pretty cruel to us when we get to places of failure or disillusionment or down roads we shouldn't have gone, or become people we never thought we'd be, or do things we never thought we'd do, or end up in s- failure of some way, and people are like, "Dummy, how could you do that?" And we fill up social media with all the stories of people who went down what we now see are wrong paths.

We've all been there, and look at, we can all relate to decisions or seasons of life or paths we were so sure we were right.

We were good.

We had no idea we were lost until we got to the end of that road and suddenly went, "Man, how did I get here? What was I thinking?" That's a dangerous way of being lost when we don't even realize we are.

But the other way perhaps we can all relate to in some way is when you get to this place of feeling lost because you don't know where you're trying to go or what to do next, or perhaps you might say, "I don't know who I am or who I am anymore." When I don't know where I'm going, when I don't know what to do next, or I don't know who I am.

And that could be ...

That's not a, that's not an age and stage thing.

You could feel like that when you're 20 or 40 or 60 or 80, and we might even use the terms, "I feel a bit lost." Maybe for some of us, that's at, like, a big picture level where we really kinda don't have a sense of, um, what we should be doing in life or where we should be going, a sense of disorientation, perhaps, at w- what stage we're in or what decision to make.

Maybe it's something very acute, very specific, like, "I'm not sure what to do next," or, "I can't see what the next step is for me," or, "I've just gone through something where suddenly I feel disoriented," or in a season where I don't understand what's going on.

Or perhaps more general and at a baseline level, some of us would say, "Yeah, I feel like I don't know who I am.

Like, I know who others expect me to be, and everyone's telling me I can do this and I can be anything I wanna be, but quite frankly, those words aren't encouraging, they're crushing to me." Or maybe you've gone through a loss or a setback, or maybe things haven't worked out the way you hoped, or sometimes worse, everything has worked out the way you hoped, and you still are at this point going, "I feel a bit lost," or, "I don't know who I am anymore, and s- I, I've achieved everything I thought I would want to achieve, but I still don't feel like that's doing it for me.

What do I do now?" I don't know where this finds you today.

Perhaps you're coming into this place feeling like you're lacking some direction.

Maybe you feel lost in terms of purpose.

Maybe you've gone through some loss.

Maybe you're just in a situation or a decision that feels cloudy, and you're not sure what to do next.

Or maybe you are really questioning the core of who you really are.

Who am I, or who am I now? Or perhaps you're walking alongside someone who is lost or feels lost.

Can I just say that the writers of the gospel, the biographies of Jesus, tell us that this is really good news, that Jesus brings good news to us, that there is good news for those of us [laughs] who feel lost, who are lost, or who may be lost and don't even know we are.