Hermily for 5.7.26

STOP. Collaborate. Listen.

The readings are here.

I’m so ready for Spring; I’ve been watching the weather reports and waiting for conditions to be right because I love being in the woods.

I am no long-trek mountain climber or anything, but I love to hike, and I am so looking forward to getting out onto those woody trails.

Since I do short trips and never really leave cell service, there’s not much risk of my getting seriously lost on a hike; but still before I head out, I remind myself of this important advice for hikers: if you get lost, stay where you are.

The rule exists because of a particular way that humans respond to stressful situations like getting lost; we panic. And that panic affects our decision making, which leads to us making ourselves harder to find. When we panic, we tend to wander, and that often makes things much worse.

The rules to follow when we get lost in the woods, are called the STOP rules:

• Stop: Stop moving immediately, stay calm, and stay put to prevent becoming more lost.

• Think: How did you get there? What was your last familiar point?

• Observe: Check your surroundings, map, compass, and identify landmarks.

• Plan: Only move if you have a clear plan; otherwise, stay put.¹

I can’t help but think that this advice applies across a whole range of situations… and today we hear Jesus giving his disciples, and us, similar spiritual advice.

He says, Remain in my love. In fact in the preaching that he gives, which we started to hear in yesterday’s liturgy, he says the word “remain” 11 times.

He means just what the hikers mean, I think; if we’re feeling lost, if we’ve gone off track and feel like we can’t find our way back to God, we shouldn’t panic. We shouldn’t let our fear erode our decision making. We shouldn’t take off and wander in random directions, mistakenly believing we can get ourselves out of trouble by running away or continuing in our same wrong direction.

No, Jesus says, just… stop. Remain in me. Remain in me because if you do that, when you are here with me, you are also with the Father. When you remain in my love, says Jesus to us today, you remain in God’s love. Even when you feel that you are lost, if you remain, you are already found.

Remain. STOP.

These hiking rules are great spiritual rules. When we feel lost, and I think it’s kind of a guarantee that at some point, we have felt lost and we will feel lost again, we can…

• Stop: Stop moving immediately, stay calm, and remain in the love of Jesus to prevent getting ourselves even more lost.

• Think: How did we get there? Where did we veer off from the path of walking with Jesus?

• Observe: Check our surroundings, consult scripture, remember God’s promises, and look for signs of God’s presence already with us.

• Plan Pray: Ask God to come and find us. Ask God to show us how They’ve never left us. Thank Jesus for remaining with us and resolve to remain with him.

Ultimately the reason we’re told to stop in the woods if we’re lost is so that we can be found. If we get seriously lost in the woods, someone will be coming to find us and bring us to safety, and the best thing for us to do is to stay where we are and just be ready to be found.

And I think Jesus is giving this advice for the very same reason. No matter how lost we’ve gotten ourselves, God is coming to find us and will meet us exactly where we are, will come to us exactly where we are waiting to be found. God only wants to remain with us— wants us to remain in God’s love always.

Let’s practice. Let’s take the next few moments to call to mind a time when we felt lost; maybe that time is now… and let’s practice stopping, thinking, observing and praying, so that we will know again what it feels like to remain in God’s love, to always be ready to be found.

1. https://www.fs.usda.gov/visit/know-before-you-go/if-you-get-lost