LOST & FOUND

DAY 100:  A report shows that the most commonly lost items are as follows: keys, cell phones, sunglasses, credit cards and pens.  I have lost all of those things- multiple times. After a frantic, unorganized search, I am usually able to locate what I have "lost" but not before I have destroyed everything around me in the search.

According to one expert, there is a better way: just follow an easy 16-step process of elimination.  Oh, is that all?  Just 16 steps that ends with #16: If all hope is lost after trying all the steps, go out and replace the object. It will provide less frustration and stress. If the item is irreplaceable, do the previous 15 steps again and gain confidence.

If you follow this blog, you already know that I lost my briefcase recently containing my laptop, camera, bible, debit card and flash drive. I did everything I could to retrieve it.  Unfortunately, I left it in a parking lot after a quick stop on a road trip, so #16 was all I had: If all hope is lost ... go out and replace the object.

I would disagree, however, that following that step provides less frustration.  What's more frustrating than replacing a perfectly good expensive computer because you carelessly LOST YOURS! I decided to add a #17: Pray for a miracle.

Almost two weeks after I "lost" my stuff, and with no leads from the police,  I sent the insurance agent the receipts hoping some of the loss would be covered.  That same day I received an unexpected message on my facebook account. It read: Hi. I know we do not know each other but I've been trying to get in contact with you. We found something that belongs to you, and would like to give it back. Please call me.  

The phone number was from the same area code where I knew I had left my briefcase!  Could it really be found!  I called the number and heard the most wonderful words: We found your briefcase! I can't tell you how thrilling those words were! The things I had lost had been found and were returned to me.  It was just stuff, but it was MY stuff.  I was so excited that someone had found it and made the decision to return it.  I was overjoyed!  I called all my close friends who had lived through the loss with me so that they could celebrate the great news.

It turns, that before I even knew I had lost it - God had already put it into the hands of trustworthy people for safe keeping.  As I was praying, God had already answered.  That was the real joy of the entire story - that God indeed knows what we need before we even ask! I thought that was my lesson.

Then as I read today's Bible passage, God used this experience again to help shed a little light on the lesson Jesus was teaching in response to some "religious" criticism.

Luke 15:1  Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. ² This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

So Jesus told three stories to help them understand His ways.  He told of a man who had 100 sheep but one gets lost.  The man, of course, leaves the 99 and goes to search for the lost one until he finds it.  

⁵ And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. ⁶ When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’

They must have looked confused. He tries again by telling of a woman who looses one of her 10 silver coins and searches the house until she finds it. 

  ⁹ And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’

Finally tells an extended story about a son who insists on his inheritance early and then leaves home and squanders it.  Eventually, he comes groveling home only to find that his father is overjoyed that he has returned. He throws a huge party and invites everyone to celebrate with him.

³² We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

Jesus point was not about lost objects, but lost souls - like sinners he searched out. 

⁷ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! ^{10 . . .} In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.

If I could feel such elation at lost objects being recovered, how much more should I rejoice when someone lost in sin is "found?" Too often I make much of little, and little of much.  It is a  hazard of being surrounded by this temporal world.  But Jesus always kept his focus on people - and the mission to find them.  THREE TIMES He tried to explain the priority of found people.  It involves three easy steps: #1 SEARCH #2 FIND  #3 REJOICE.  

I can certainly make sure that I am searching where lost people can be found.  I can pray that God will do the finding and they will respond.  And I can REJOICE at the miracle with them. 

I'm excited to get to do that this Sunday as we throw a party for a woman who was lost and now is found - and will be baptized this week.  God has reminded me that if there was ever something to celebrate - THIS IS IT!  Because the most common things lost, sadly, are the people. Today, there is one less - and I am going to REJOICE!

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Day 101 of 365
Joshua 5
Joshua 6
Joshua 7:1-15
Luke 15
Psalm 81:1-16
Proverbs 13:1

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