Ever lost anything important?

Of course you have!  It's nerve wracking, mind bending, aggravating, frustrating. . . and yet it usually isn't the end of the world is it?  Keys, money, a phone number, your wallet. . . even if you never find them again it isn't the end of the world.  Life will go on.  Things are replaceable.  It may take a little effort but all of these things can be replaced fairly simply.

"I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil. . ." (Martin Luther, SC, explanation to the Second Article of the Apostles' Creed)

I'm lost.  I've been lost.  I will be lost again I am quite sure.

But I'm also found.  God found me when I was about 22, fresh out of college, a useless biology degree in hand, not headed to med school which had been my plan for so long, track career over, working at a Chinese restaurant wearing a blue silk Chinese dress everyday to work, living at home- the last place a 22 year old wants to be (at least that was what I thought back then).  Lost.  Beaten.  Virtually hopeless.

But God found me again.  I'd like to say that I found God but I know that's not the truth of the matter.  I don't think I was looking for him.  The God of my childhood was a cold, sterile, boring, dry, lackluster figment of the imagination- and a very imaginative one at that.  I remember not being moved at all by any worship in my childhood though I attended every Sunday.  How sad is that?  I remember going to counseling with the pastor of my teen years and hearing, "I don't like you and I don't like your attitude."  Endearing, eh?  Is that how God sees me too?  Maybe God doesn't like me or my attitude?  What a shame.  Is it any wonder I was lost? I was not only lost I was thrust out into the realm of "dislike."

But then, God found me.  Different church, still Lutheran, different preacher, pure Gospel.  Pure milk for the 22 year old baby.  God grabbed ahold of me through a servant who is still my pastor today when I need one.  God used him to get me to seminary.  God uses us to bring others to faith, to bring the lost into the realm of being found.  We may never know it but it's true nevertheless and it doesn't matter if we ever find out that something we did or said led someone to Christ- we simply do our best to encourage that to happen.

So, some things don't matter in the big picture if they are lost--- but lost people matter.  They matter very much and God will never give up working to bring all lost and condemned sinners back into the fold of his mercy and grace.  Know someone who is lost?  Don't give up on them!  Keep in touch with them, keep an eye on them, keep telling them how much you love them and more importantly--- how much God loves them!  And maybe your prayers will be answered. . . I think it's God's will that those prayers will be answered! Amen.