I love the way Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece, The Inferno, begins: “Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark, / For the straightforward pathway had been lost.” Dante, about 35 years old, suddenly finds himself in a dark, scary wood. The most interesting part of the first Canto is that he has no idea how he ended up there: “I cannot well repeat how there I entered, / So full was I of slumber at the moment / In which I had abandoned the true way.”

He fell asleep (metaphorically) when he strayed from the true way. I can’t think of a more accurate portrayal of how we get lost ourselves.

Life works that way sometimes. We get the job. The relationship. The raise. The promotion. The win. Life goes well. But then we get lulled to sleep. We get complacent. We start compromising. We stop paying attention.

Think about Dante’s example. He’s walking on the straightforward path. He knows it’s the right path, and he wants to walk down that path. He’s not trying to get lost. Yet, he still gets distracted, falls asleep, gets complacent, whatever you want to call it. He strays gradually, unnoticeably so, but steadily. Suddenly, he’s nowhere near the path. When he finally realizes his error, he’s frightened and wants to escape it. That’s when he sees this brilliantly lit hill.

How often do we find ourselves in the same situation? We get complacent with life. We compromise our beliefs and convictions a little at a time. We take one step off the path, but we’re still on with the other foot. We stray a little more, but we’re still near it. We stray further, but we can still see it. We don’t make these big leaps, just gradually drift until suddenly we can’t see the path anymore. It’s not until we get that wake-up call that we realize how far off we’ve strayed, sometimes to the point where we don’t even recognize who we are anymore.

So what do we do?

Dante started climbing. He sees the light at the top of the hill, so he tries to climb up it, but three beasts get in his way: a leopard, a lion, and a wolf. They prevent him from climbing. He is ready to give up because he realizes he can’t do it himself. Then, the poet Virgil shows up and says that he has been sent to Dante to guide him through another way.

How do we get out of the woods? The reality is simple: we can’t. Not on our own.

Through our own efforts, we can’t fix our problems. We need a guide, just like Dante, because ultimately, the Dark Woods is our sinful life that prevents us from achieving the light.

Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” God’s word shows the way and can guide us out of the woods. That Word, ultimately manifested in Jesus, will bring us to the light. We simply have to follow.