Losing Our Way
Which way shall we go?
by Vicky Scott (revised, originally published in 2009)
Suitable for Whole School (Sec)
Aims
To consider the importance of guidance and direction in our lives.
Preparation and materials
- You will need a selection of items that help to show people the way, such as a phone, satnav, torch, map, compass and bell.
- Optional: you may wish to prepare a story of your own about when you have been lost and how you were found for the ‘Assembly’, Step 4.
Assembly
- Show the selection of items to the students.
Ask the students what the items have in common. Explain that they are all ways of providing guidance, and of helping us when we are lost.
Tell the students that you are going to tell them a story about a lost traveller, William Davis. - Back in the eighteenth century, in Hampshire, William Davis was riding home when a heavy fog enveloped him. It wasn’t long before he had lost his way. Suddenly, however, he heard the bells from his church start to ring, so he followed the sound and arrived safely home.
Some time later, Davis worked out that he must have been close to the chalk pits, which had very steep sides. If he had gone any further, he might have fallen in and been killed.
When Davis died in 1754, he left some money in his will. The money was to pay the bell-ringers to ring the church bells twice on 7 October every year, at 6.30am and 7pm, in gratitude for the help that the bells had given him when he was lost. - Ask the students to think of a time when they have been lost. Perhaps they went for a walk in a forest and lost their way. Perhaps they entered a maze and suddenly found themselves unable to find the way out. Maybe they have been a stranger in a big city or separated from their friends and family in a large shopping centre.
- Ask the students to reflect on how they felt when they were lost.
Optional: you may wish to share a story about when you have been lost and how you were found. - Ask the students, ‘What would you do if you were lost?’
Would they call for help? Ask for directions? Use a map and compass? Look for signs or lights that could guide them?
There are often stories in the media about people who have been lost and found. There are also many adventure stories about the subject, such as Robinson Crusoe, a novel about a sailor whose ship is wrecked in a storm, leading him to spend the next 28 years surviving on a desert island. - There is another way of being lost, though. On a smaller scale, we can feel lost in a crowd. Most people feel like this at some point in their lives.
- In the Bible, Jesus told several stories about things or people that were lost and then found.
- There was the farmer who searched for his one lost sheep.
- There was the woman who lost one precious coin and was overjoyed when she found it.
- There was the lost son, who took his inheritance and left home, travelling a long way from his father who really cared for him. The son wasted his money on worthless things until he finally realized that he had made bad choices. When he returned to his family, his father welcomed him with open arms. - These stories reflect what Christians believe: that human beings sometimes wander from God, but God is always waiting for their return.
Jesus promises to be our light in the darkness to help us and guide us if we trust him. He said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ (John 14.6) Jesus also said that he had come ‘to seek and to save what was lost.’ (Luke 19.10)
Time for reflection
Perhaps we feel that we are lost, or have wandered from the path that would lead us to being the person we want to be. Maybe we feel that we have let people down by something that we said or did, causing a relationship to be ruined.
Words can be painful, but being unforgiving breeds bitterness and misery, whereas forgiveness leads to peace and freedom. We should try to understand other people’s points of view and not leave it until it’s too late.
Perhaps we are wondering what we are going to do with our lives. We may feel that we lack direction and purpose. Like the lost traveller in today’s story, we feel lost on the journey of life. When we feel confused about things and need pointing in the right direction, it’s important that we look to caring friends and family.
Remind the students of the various people and services available in school that are there to help them if they are feeling lost. Remind them that it is always best to talk!
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for those bell-ringers whose ringing guided William Davis out of the fog and safely back home.
In our lives, please lead us and guide us when we feel lost and alone, or when we feel that life doesn’t make any sense.
Amen.
