I would have you think with me often about another passion of mine.  Think with me about “lost” persons.  I came into your history to find persons who were lost and bring them back to God.  Some well-intentioned friends of mind have so corrupted the word “lost” that you may have difficulty hearing what I mean.

The “lost” I want you to consider are those one-dimensional persons who live in a world of things and action, a world under human control with truth limited to sensation.  They are so lost.  They know nothing about the spiritual dimension of existence.  They will not even permit themselves to believe in a transcendent meaning for their lives.  O how blind!

Think with me about the lost who stifle my voice with constant activity.  Look how they dash from one party to another; how they pump themselves up with new clothes and smother their hunger for God with alcohol and drugs.  Do you not have friends like these?

Think with me about the lonely.  Remember the divorcee with children to support, the widow without funds to pay the monthly bills, homeless children with no one to caress or cradle them, the aged forgotten by relatives and society, the uprooted who move every five years, the outsiders who feel they don’t belong anywhere.  Pause in the presence of their emptiness.  Allow yourself to suffer their pain vicariously.  Can you feel the agony of nothingness and meaninglessness which plagues them daily?

I regret to tell you that there are some who know me and deliberately turn their back on my teaching.  They rebel against the truth and suffer the bitter consequences of their choices.

All these suffering persons outside my body belong to me.  I so much want them to know that I love them, that I care for them infinitely.  Will you join me in caring?  Will you share with me in letting them know?  I want to use your hands to reach out and touch them.  I want to use your voice to speak to them.  In speaking to them and serving them, you engage them for me.  Even their self-will can be overcome when they are confronted with the truth of my compassion through you.  

I stand at the door inviting you to think with me.

– Ben Johnson, I Stand at the Door, CTS Press, 1986, 9-10.

Keep loving each other like family.  Don’t neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this some have been hosts to angels without knowing it.  Remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them, and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place.  Marriage must be honored in every respect, with no cheating on the relationship, because God will judge the sexually immoral person and the person who commits adultery.  Your way of life should be free from the love of money, and you should be content with what you have. After all, he has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. (Deut 31:6, Gen 28:15)

This is why we can confidently say, 
The Lord is my helper, 
and I won’t be afraid. 
What can people do to me? (Psalm 118:6)

Hebrews 13:1-5

As you spend time thinking about the “lost” described here, think about your own life.  Is there a part of you that feels lost now?  Can you remember a time in your life, when you were lost?  How has Jesus reached out and touched your life?  Have you experienced what it feels like to be found by the love of our God?

Who in your life might Christ be calling you to reach out to now?  Spend time thinking and praying about this person/people, asking God to show you how best to offer compassion and care to them.

Holy Lord,
I am so grateful that you sent Jesus
into the world
and into my life
to show us the depth and power of your incredible love for us.
Help me to receive that love
each and every day
and step into the life it is calling me to live.
Show me how to share that love,
as I seek to serve you 
and the people you have put into my life.
Amen