Jesus asks a rhetorical question, “If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains, and go and search for the one that is lost?” (Matt 18:12 NABRE) It’s rhetorical, because the answer is obvious. Of course, he will go and look for the sheep that went astray!
And the lesson Jesus points out is this, He says: “God, your Father in heaven, is like that shepherd. He does not want any of these little people to be lost, not even one of them.” And who do you think Jesus was referring to as the people who are like the lost sheep?
Many years ago, my wife and I with our kids were visiting Singapore and enjoying a park somewhere in the city. We rented bicycles for each of our kids and they biked around exploring the huge park. After a while, the kids returned to where Daisy and I were stationed. Except for one, our daughter, Danie. Apparently, she went astray and we didn’t know where she was. It took us maybe fifteen minutes before we found her, but those frightful fifteen minutes seemed like eternity.
On another occasion, two or three years ago, I was with three of my grandsons, and we joined two friends of mine, to climb the Tarak Ridge in Mount Mariveles in Bataan. Though we didn’t have a guide, this was a popular hiking trail, and we simply followed our two friends through what looked like the one and only trail going up to the peak. Actually neither of our two friends had actually climbed this mountain before. What can I say? Boys will be boys, right? At some point, three hours later, after refreshing ourselves by a stream, one of our friends led us up through what he thought was a short cut, that would return us back to the main trail. Soon enough, after about twenty minutes, we found ourselves hiking through a heavily wooded section with no visible sign of where we would be heading. I start feeling that our friend was leading us blindly. I thought we were lost, and if we proceeded further deeper into the woods looking for the right path, we may get deeper into the woods and never find our way back. That’s when I said, “Stop!”, and instructed everyone to head back to the stream. Thankfully we found ourselves back in that stream, we re-oriented ourselves, and discovered the proper trail. Imagine if we had remained headstrong and attempted to plow through the forest, we would eventually be exhausted, and would be desperately lost, spend the night in the jungle without provisions and shelter. And even more frightening was the thought that no one – except our families back in Manila – knew we were on this mountain. How would they ever find us?
IT IS EASY TO GET LOST WITHOUT OUR KNOWING IT
No one wants to get lost. Yet, many of us make decisions that lead us astray from where we aim to be. Right? And I don’t mean just physically getting lost in unknown territory, like my stories earlier. I mean life in general. We can get lost in our relationships; we can go astray in our career or our vocation, or our business. Maybe we start off with good intentions but then we get distracted, go astray, then we lose track of what is important, and find ourselves wandering aimlessly. And it may seem like we’re in a good place, we would soon discover that we’re actually missing out on important things that are vital for a full, productive, and meaningful life.
This is true, not only with the things that occupy our time and attention – such as studies, careers, business, or relationships. This is true also about our own character, our personality, including our emotional and spiritual well-being. It’s easy to lose our sense of balance, and direction and security.
This happens more so in our modern times when we are confronted with so many attractive options, so many resources to do anything and everything we set our minds to. And it costs so little to shift our attention and our focus from one thing to another.
And then, and then …. sometimes, life throws us a curved ball, and things happen to us, without our knowing or intending it. We get laid off. Our customers go to our competitors. The doctor tells us we have cancer. We have a miscarriage. We get betrayed by our partner. A storm washes away all our belongings. We lose a loved one. And when this happens, we get disoriented and feel lost, we despair, and we suffer unimaginable pain and anguish and grief.
My dear brothers and sisters, the problem of loss and the condition of feeling lost and disoriented is real and it happens even to the best of us, and it has a tendency to resurface in different variants throughout our lives.
IF YOU’RE LOST, JESUS WILL FIND YOU
But you know what? In this simple parable of the shepherd looking for the lost, Jesus gives us hope. He tells us of the great love that our Father has for each one of us. When Jesus says that the shepherd will search for the lost sheep and bring it back to a safe place, that means that God totally cares for each one of us. And He does not like us to get lost, to feel alone, and to be without purpose and direction.
In fact, God sent Jesus into the world to let us know that He grieves when we grieve, and He weeps when we weep. And that’s why elsewhere in the gospels Jesus invites each and everyone of us to follow Him, because He says He is the way, the truth and the life; and He promises that there is a room prepared for each of us in His Father’s house, and this is where He wishes to take each of us — if we follow Him.
My dear friend, the Bible, which reveals all of God’s thoughts and intentions and plans for you, assures you over and over and over and over that God cares for you, and that He has a plan and a specific purpose for you, and fulfilling His purpose is all you need to focus on. So, please, I encourage you to spend time listening to what God says about Himself and His plans for you, through the words that He speaks in the Bible.
If you are going through a period of disorientation, of emptiness, of lack of direction, or grief, my prayer for you is that you find comfort in the words of Psalm 23. In this Psalm, God promises you that even though you wander into and get lost in the valley of darkness, know that He is with you. Trust Him and believe in Him … and God will meet you wherever you’re at. And then, if you trust Him, He will lead you to green pastures, to still waters, and that goodness and kindness will follow you through the days of your lives, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
And, on the other, for those of you who have found new direction, new meaning and purpose in life through Jesus — despite the storms and the darkness that this life continues to send your way — praise God for the peace and confidence that you have from following Jesus. My prayer is for the Lord to use you to be His eyes, His ears, and His hands to look for those who are lost, to reach out to them with compassion and empathy, and to lead them along the pathway of hope into the loving embrace of the Good Shepherd.
REFLECTION: What signs (in my soul, in my relationships, in my community) suggest I might be on the wrong track, even if everything looks “fine” externally?
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