If you’d told me I’d get lost in New York City, I’d have begged you to wake me up from my nightmare.

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But lo and behold, during my junior year on choir tour, with over one hundred students jam-packed into a few charter buses, I ended up lost in one of the biggest cities in the world. I and a handful of other friends followed a chaperone who, although they were invested in getting a picture with a person dressed up as Woody from Toy Story in Times Square, didn’t invest in a GPS.

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But when we realized the time—thanks to the handy dandy screens in the Square—we scrambled toward the sidewalks to get back to the bus for our next tour stop.

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None of us had a keen sense of direction, and the only ones with cell phones didn’t have our choir director’s number. It was a time before any of us had smart phones, so no luck in using a GPS. Swerving from street to street, I felt my chest contract as tears welled up in my eyes.

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We’ll never get back to the bus. They’ll ditch us and pick up a couple of Broadway actors to take our place. I mean, there are more than one hundred students. Who needs a couple of spare altos and sopranos who can’t read a map?

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At long last, our choir director called one of our phones (she must’ve gotten the number from another student) and discovered our location. She rushed over, directed us to the bus’s position, and made sure we climbed aboard before we took off to our next destination.

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I had never related to Jesus’ story of the lost sheep until that day. Especially knowing that our choir teacher would not leave until she had all of us, even having to ditch the bus to locate where we’d gotten lost. And man, oh man, did it feel good to be found. • Hope Bolinger

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• Have you ever been lost before? What did it feel like to be lost? What did it feel like to be found?

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• Reread today’s Bible passage. Where do you see yourself in the story of the lost sheep? The one who is lost? One of the ninety-nine?

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• To learn more about how we all need to be found by Jesus, check out our "Know Jesus" page.

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What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? Luke 15:4 (CSB)