Different Types of Lost

Our English Club busy at a game.

Sometimes a word you hear from one person is exactly the right word for another.  You didn’t come up with it, your only job is to be the messenger. 

That’s what happened recently as I listened to my island brother share his insights on a famous passage.  He shared about three famous stories that are told in succession. The first story concerns a lost sheep and a shepherd who leaves the 99 to find and save the missing lamb.  The second involves a woman who has lost a coin.  She lights a candle and searches her house high and low until she finds it.  The third is probably the most well known.  It is the story of a wayward son who takes his inheritance, squanders it and returns to his home in rags only to be welcomed back with love by his waiting father.

My island brother’s insight into these stories was compelling. In each of these stories, he explained, something is being sought, yet they describe three very different types of people.  The first is a person in crisis, desperate and in need.  The shepherd finds the lost lamb in distress.  The second is a person unaware that they are being sought.  A coin does not know if it is lost or found, yet the widow searches for it diligently until she finds it.  The third story is of someone who feels ashamed.  They don’t believe they deserve to be sought, but the father is waiting for them, waiting to welcome them back.

She lost another tooth!

All around us, my friend explained, there are people like this.  Some people are in trouble. Some people are unaware.  Some people are ashamed.  But all of them are being sought. Who are we to judge which type of person our neighbor or co-worker might be? It was a beautiful devotion and lead us to a wonderful time of prayer. 

A few days later I was with a group of men.  One of them said he wanted to know how to enter the kingdom of light.  His friend started to yell at him, then turned to me and said, “That guy’s not serious. He’s just joking around.”  But the guy looked at me intently and asked again how to enter the kingdom.  I don’t know this guy very well.  It’s possible he wasn’t sincere and was just jerking me around.  It’s also possible that up until that moment, he was just living life and had never given eternity a second thought.  But my mind went to my friend’s devotion.  Could this be a lost coin?  His friend kept up his haranguing and honestly, I didn’t know their hearts, so I said, let’s read these stories.  We read the three stories and then I shared the things my island brother had shared with me.  Different kinds of people are being sought.  Some are seriously searching. Others are surprised to be found.  But it makes them no less found.  And who are we to say what goes on in a man’s heart?

This papaya lost its seeds!

So I shared with them the way to enter the kingdom and we prayed together.  Was a lost coin found?  Time will tell.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We had a huge answer to pray this week. After years of prayer, our faithful friend Elewa told us that her husband has accepted the good news! We rejoice with her and what this means for her family. Elewa also now has a plan in place to travel to Kenya for medical treatment in mid-Sept and it looks like her financial needs will be met to make that happen. We’ve heard some initial reports that the off-site meetings that our small-island colleagues had went well.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
One of our good friend’s cousin died this past week. She was a young mother with a toddler and a baby. Pray for her mourning family. Please pray for our newest brother (Elewa’s husband) that he would grow strong and be prepared for the persecution to come and that God would protect his family and marriage. Our teammate leaves in just two weeks for a long break to the US— pray that she would have opportunities to share and tie up any lose ends. Two of our island brothers are traveling this week, pray for safe travels. Megan is having some tummy travels and our daughter’s allergies have picked up making her wheezy, pray for healing.