Once I was "Lost"

Some of you know that I am a big fan of the ABC TV series “Lost”. Over the past couple of seasons, they’ve gotten into some science fiction and time travelling stuff that I don’t completely understand, but the show still fascinates me.

It’s one of those shows that’s hard to explain. The bottom line is that an airplane crashes on a remote island in the Pacific. Strange things happen on the island. There’s a smoke monster and a polar bear and some wild boars. In addition to the survivors of the crash, there are other people on the island. There was a French lady, and some hostiles and some “others”. Some survivors get rescued. Most don't. If you have never watched the show, then none of this should make sense. If you have never watched the show and this does make sense, please call your doctor right away.

One of the things I find so intriguing about LOST is the spiritual dimension of the show. Certainly, no character is overtly Christian, and there isn’t much talk about God per se, but there are characters who firmly believe that things don’t happen by accident, and that there is a grand design that goes beyond each of us.

This season, the show’s characters are time-travelling. Sometimes they travel ahead in time, and other times they travel back in time. A few times, they’ve even traveled to a period of time which included an earlier time that they were on the island—theoretically, they could encounter an earlier version of themselves, though that hasn’t happened (yet!).

That’s really the point of this whole blog entry (and you didn’t think I had a point, did you?). A couple of episodes ago, one of the survivors (his name is Locke) saw something which he recognized as being a part of an event in which he had previously participated. But rather than walking toward that event, he deliberately took a path away from the event. That led to an exchange with one of the other survivors (Sawyer). Here’s a transcript of their conversation:

SAWYER: Why did you turn us around then? Wouldn’t you want to go back there?
LOCKE: Why would I want to do that?
SAWYER: So you could tell yourself to do things different. Save yourself a world of pain.
LOCKE: No, I needed that pain, to get to where I am now.

When I heard that exchange, I immediately thought, That’ll preach! (That’s the way pastors think, I’m sorry to say). What Locke was saying is that heartache and pain are sometimes part of a process that leads to something greater. Locke’s comments echo those of the Apostle Paul who said, For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Think back to some adversities you’ve experienced in your life. While there may be things you would change if you could, do you realize what a different person you’d be without those experiences? Do you see how God has used even those difficult situations to bring you to where He wants you today? Like Locke in “Lost”, sometimes we need the pain to get to where we are—or to take us where God wants us to be.