Lost

On Sunday evening 20/20 aired an episode about the Kim family who left San Francisco on November 17, 2006, to make a road trip to spend Thanksgiving in Seattle with family and friends. After spending a pleasant holiday weekend with loved ones, the Kims began their trip home. James Kim had his heart set on staying at the Tu Tu Tun Inn at Gold Beach in Oregon. Although it was already late and their two daughters, Penelope, age four years, and Sabine, age seven months, were asleep in the back seat, the Kims decided to make the five-hour drive to Gold Beach. Kati Kim called ahead for reservations.

After a quick meal at Denny’s, the Kims headed down I-5 to Gold Beach, but they soon made a wrong turn. Before long, they realized that they were on the wrong road, but they agreed that they had gone too far to turn back. Kati consulted the map and found what she thought was a short cut to Gold Beach. As a result, the Kims made another wrong turn. Satisfied that they would arrive at Gold Beach in record time, Kati went to sleep, and while she slumbered, James made yet another wrong turn that took them up Bear Camp Road—a road that should have been blocked by a gate to prevent motorists from entering during the fall and winter months.

Kati awoke to find that they were hopelessly lost on a precipitous mountain road that led to nowhere. Snow was falling, and black bear were patrolling the forest. Terrified, James and Kati agreed to spend the night in the clearing where James had parked the car. They tried to call 911 but were unable to find cell phone service in the forest.

When daylight arrived, the Kims decided to stay where they were and wait to be rescued. They remained in their car for three days, huddled together for warmth, with the engine idling and the heater running, until they finally ran out of gas. In a desperate attempt to save his family, James then took the tires off their car and burned them in the hopes that someone would see the smoke and rescue them.

On day seven James left the car to try to find help. He began walking down the road on which they had come, but, once again, left the road to take a “short cut” through the woods.

On day nine, Kati and the two girls were rescued and taken to the hospital where they recovered.

James eventually died of hypothermia, and on day eleven rescuers found his body in Big Windy Creek lying on its back in a foot of icy water.

This horribly tragic story provides a good parallel for how people so often handle their spiritual lives. Our lives progress through a series of choices. Hardly anyone makes one choice that destroys his life; usually, a failed life is due to a series of “wrong turns.” The problem is that each wrong turn takes us further down a dangerous road.

When my children were young, I told them that everyone makes some bad choices, but when we realize that we are on the wrong path we must stop and immediately start making better choices. We may not be able to undo whatever damage is already done, but in most cases, if we stop as soon as we know that we are on the wrong road, the damage will be minimal.

If James Kim had turned around when he and his wife first realized that they had made a wrong turn, they would have, at worst, lost an hour or so of driving time. By returning to the point where they had gone wrong and getting back on the proper highway, the family would have been spared days of trauma, and James would not have lost his life.

As in driving, in spiritual matters it often seems more expedient to continue on a road to nowhere than it is to turn around. Even when we can no longer delude ourselves that our current road will get us where we want to go, we try to compensate by simply taking another wrong turn. If we take enough wrong turns, we will find ourselves so lost that it will be nearly impossible to find our way back to the highway.

There is one straight, narrow road that leads to heaven, and when we find ourselves on any other path, we must stop, turn around, and go back to that safe highway. The Bible assures us that Jesus loves us and died for us while we were yet sinners so that we could be forgiven and reunited with Him, but we must be willing to leave the path of sin and destruction so that He can deliver us from all those wrong turns.

Joyce Swann is the author of Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother which recounts how she taught her ten children at home from the first grade through graduate work. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.