Lorena Hawkins was born and raised in a small town in Oregon, where she grew up on a ranch. At the age of 13 her father committed suicide, and her life of adventure began. At the age of 17 she became an exchange student to India where she found the need for a god when a Gecko made his way across her arm one dark night. At 19 she found the God of Christianity and began a life of ministry.

And, at the age of 27, after years spent in college and ministry, she became lost while found. "Driving north on the highway from Boise Idaho there was a reader board in front of a Baptist Church with the question, ‘Are you lost or are you found?’ I remember thinking to myself, ‘Even though I'm found, I'm lost.’ I remember how hopeless I felt as I read those words. I knew in the very depths of my heart those words were meant for the lost, not for someone who had already found Jesus, and I was definitely considered "found" by those around me. Up until that point, I had been highly involved in youth ministries followed by three years of leading a college ministry for InterVarsity. During my last year of leadership I began to lose site of my relationship with Jesus. "

So, where do you go when you are in the role of leadership and the pressure gets to high and you find yourself lost while everyone else considers you found? You could turn to those around you, but it's scary to be honest with those people. You could turn to the Church, but they have not always been the kindest in dealing with those of their own who have fallen. Yet you cannot walk away from God either because His voice still calls you on. You know things must be fixed but how is that done when you feel you have no place to turn? This is were Lorena found herself, and by the grace of God she made it back to His side.

Out of the year and a half of being lost while found Lorena began to write as a process of exploring where thing went wrong. Today those explorations have found their way into a book titled Lost While Found: A Return to Grace, a book of essays focusing on Biblical characters who have also tested the depths of God’s grace. In it Lorena investigates moments when those who are considers to be the giants of the faith become lost in their relationship with God.

The book ranges from looking at David and Peter’s lostness to Mary the Mother of Jesus and how she prevented herself from being coming lost while pregnant with the Messiah. From Jonah and his discovery of a good God to John the Baptist and his discovery of a Messiah who didn’t look anything like he thought he should. The last chapter of the book is an invitation for all of us to live a life with Jesus based on authenticity instead of hiding behind the need of being inspirational at every moment.

Lorena has returned to ministry again with a desire to encourage others to be honest about their relationship with God with themselves and with others.

When she finishes speaking to a group Lorena longs for her audience to walk away with three important messages:
  • God is faithful and does not give up on His own,
  • grace abounds and surpasses the depths of our transgressions,
  • and finally, a daily personal relationship with Jesus is based up on time spent in the Bible and prayer.
"We must all live in this moment we call life. Sometimes we fight the battle with ease and sometimes we fight it with everything we have inside and then we find our faith grow weak. And then in those weak moments we are tempted to say, 'God is lost to me and I to Him.' How soon we forget the promise of 2 Timothy 2:11-13 'It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.'"

Lorena Hawkins Copyright © 2008  [Renewal Ministries]. All rights reserved.