Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Pastor’s Column, 3/19/07



Pastor Gale Reitan, Lyndale Lutheran Church, Lyndale

Think about a time when you were truly lost.

It may have been deep in the woods or deep in the midst of Target, or among the throngs of people at the state fair. There is that sense of immediate panic that you no longer recognize where you are, and you are separated from the people you came with.

You are alone – even in the midst of a crowd. You begin frantically looking around, trying desperately to get your bearings. Your breathing comes faster and faster.

This is the same as when we are lost in sin. We are alone even in the midst of a crowd, we become frantic in creating lies to cover our sin, and we are separated from God.

“Where are you?” is the centering question for our Lenten season. In the beginning, in the second creation story of Genesis, God asks of Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” God goes to find them in the garden and realizes that they are hiding because of their sin.

God asked the same question just over 2,000 years ago, when God sent Jesus Christ to come and find us in the midst of our lost lives of sin and separation. Somehow, we kept getting lost and limited in the laws of salvation that God had set up for us. There needed to be another way to save us from ourselves, and the answer was Jesus Christ.

When we are separated from God, our lives spin into a frantic, clutching effort. In this time of Lent, we are called into a closer faith journey with Jesus, our Savior; Jesus who was sent by God to find us and to save us.

And 2,000 years later, God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are still out and about in our lives asking, “Where are you?”

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