“During WWII six Navy pilots left their aircraft carrier on a mission. After searching the seas for enemy submarines, they tried to return to their ship shortly after dark. But the captain had ordered a blackout of all lights on the ship. Over and over the frantic pilots radioed, asking for just one light so they could see to land. But the pilots were told that the blackout could not be lifted. After several appeals and denials of their request, the ship’s operator turned the switch to break radio contact–and the pilots were forced to ditch in the ocean” (Today in the Word, MBI, October 1991, p. 12).
If the feeling of being lost is one of the worst feelings one can have, the feeling abandonment takes that feeling to one of the deepest levels of dismay. Now the feeling isn’t just one of being lost, it is now also one of being lost, alone, unimportant, and with no hope of help. This isn’t a feeling all that unfamiliar to Christians. Ephesians 2:1-3 details out the lost and abandoned situation we were in:
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
Satan has used this world to convey promises of pleasures that quickly proved to be empty and fruitless lies. Before we knew it, we were lost and abandoned in the dark sea of sin. But then God stepped in! One of my favorite verses explains, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
How awesome it feels to be rescued! Let’s remain in the light (1 John 1:5-7) and keep reflecting God’s light for others to find their way out of abandonment (Matthew 5:14-16).
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