ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
January 12, 2022
How often have you lost something you really didn’t lose? After searching for your glasses, you found them on your face. After checking your pockets for your car keys, you realized they were in your hand all along. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t believe so. In scripture, Jesus tells a handful of parables about individuals or things lost, and the celebration upon finding what was lost. In Luke 19, Jesus speaks of how the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t believe anyone is completely lost. They may feel that way and they might have plenty of folks telling them they are, but I don’t believe God has at any point said, “I did not see you standing behind that tree. I thought you were lost” (I know it is a silly example). Psalm 139 holds tightly to the conviction that there is no place we can go where God is not. In my own struggles, suffering, fear or anger, I might not see God. But God is there! God has always been there. Lostness might be how we perceive things, but I don’t believe it is ever God’s perception of us.
Merciful God of the Universe, when I feel lost, distant or alone, reinforce within me the Good News of your everlasting presence. Let me live a life that honors your love that is present in every moment and every place and every circumstance. Amen.
2 thoughts on “01-12-21”
I like this question of whether anyone is ever absolutely lost.
Thinking in physical or geographic terms, when a child is lost we are talking about our knowledge of their presence elsewhere. When we learn they went to a neighbor’s, even if they are still there, they are no longer lost.
When someone is lost on a trip they are merely out of synch with their relationship to their surroundings. They can become unlost by orienting to a map, recognizing a landmark, or even mentally shifting to a mindset that they are on an “adventure” and don’t need to be masterfully oriented in space because their focus is learning about their current location.
Maybe that points out elements of spiritual lostness as well. As knowledge and relationship grow, lostness diminishes.
Roger
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I love this, Roger! The language of orienting oneself is really helpful in my thinking. One may feel lost, but once they orient themselves, they learn they were not lost. In faith, I see it as orienting oneself to God or to the values of God or the two great commandments, etc. Lostness diminishes as we come to understand how we were never distant from God despite how we might have felt or what others might have told us.