Lostness

by Pastor Steph

Much of who I am, what I value, stand for and believe in comes from the prairie. I grew up on a farm and ranch in western North Dakota. It is my home. There is much learning to be gleaned from farmer logic and the cowboy codes of the West. I will forever be grateful that this sense of place on the prairie has rooted me in deep theological truths, in particular I know for certain that what is lost is also found.

Consider the story of how a cow ends up outside the fence, alongside the road lost. The cow nibbles on a tuft of grass in the middle of a field, moving from one tuft to the next, and before you know it he ends up at some grass next to the fence. Noticing a nice clump of green grass on the other side of the fence, the cow stumbles through an old tear in the barb wire and finds himself outside on the road. Cows don’t intend to get lost, they just nibble their way bit by bit to lostness.

If you’re from the prairie, you know this story is about more than cows. You see, none of us intend to wander from green pastures, but we do. We nibble our way to lostness one bite, one step, one decision at a time moving further and further away from God. It is a slow fade. Most of us can’t say when it happened; when we stopped looking and listening for God in our daily life, we only know that we have. We know when we’ve gone too far, but can’t find our way back.

Friends, there is only one way back to God. There is only one way home. To find our place again in green pastures, beside still waters, is to confess our lostness. It is to turn around, and like the story of the prodigal son in Luke’s gospel, run toward our Heavenly Father. God alone redeems what is lost. God alone makes the dead to live again. “There is much rejoicing in Heaven for one sinner who turns around than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not turn around.”

We cannot afford to be complacent wanderers. We are, after all, people who are deeply rooted in the amazing grace of Jesus Christ whose cross sings over us, “I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.” Remember today, you are never too far gone; too far outside the fence; too lost to be found. That’s the truth God celebrates. God celebrates your return home. For Jesus' sake, may you run towards the party today knowing that in him you have been found! Amen.

-- Pastor Steph

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