One

Read Jesus' three stories in Luke 15...we call them the stories of the lost and found.
Ninety-nine sheep and one lost...10 silver coins and one lost...1 distant son come home...One responsible Son feeling left behind.

Whenever we read these stories we always apply the "one" or the "lost" or the left behind to ourselves. We are the lost sheep. We are the lost coin. We are the lost son. It comforts us that God would risk the entire kingdom just to find us.

But is this about us? Or is it instead about that one person out there who is lost and waiting for someone, possibly you or me, to bring them to Jesus. This is the purpose for which I live my life each day. I have no parish, I preach no sermons, but believe me, I share the gospel everyday. But this isn't about me.

It's about that co-worker sitting two cubicles away that always seems to look so stressed out. It could be she's a single mom managing a full time job, chasing child support and trying to find a permament day care solution for her kids. We make a move...grace makes a move.

How do we know its not about the girl in the locker next to us with the cutting marks on her arms? We make a move, grace makes a move.

How do we know it's not the lonely old lady in the nursing home, or the guy at work who's slipping something a little warm into his morning coffee? How do we know it's not about the kids around the neighborhood that have no father in their lives? How do we know its not the guy raking his leaves next door who just divorced after 18 years of marriage? We make a move...grace makes a move.

This is not about us. This is about the hurting, waiting, depressed, confused and let down people in our world. It is about us only as we can relate to these people. Yes...part of our spiritual journey is to be found by the God who is looking for us.

But the bigger part of our journey is being in a position so God can use us to be there for someone who needs found. Being part of the ninety- nine sheep or being one of the coins is cool....but what about the ones still out there waiting for the shepherd to find them? We make a move...grace makes a move.

I have spent, the last two months in and out of the hospital and was operated on numerous times. If have suffered relapse of symptoms of depression and anxiety I thought were long gone. I have experienced brain siezures, memory loss and tremendous fatigue.

Everyday I look for a reason to get up and fight that day's struggle. I believe that, before my illness, God was going to send me forth on a new ministry that would bring people to new life in Christ. But everytime I got close, I got attacked with some new problem or ailment. I had to overcome that before I could make my move.

Everyday I wanted to quit...but I eventually noticed that even from a hospital bed you can do significant ministry and project your faith for others to see. I spoke to nurses, workers and even other patients and all of them seemed to need encouragement. One nurses' aid finally said to me one day, "I draw encouragement from people like you who refuse to give up despite what you are going through."

In order to help God find the lost, we need to make move so grace can move. We have to see the interactions and encounters God places before us. We have to sieze the moments, not look the other way, but step forward and get involved. We move...grace moves.

But if we spend our time in discouragement, feeling sorry for ourselves, bitter and isolated from others...how can we make that move that will help ourselves or someone else get found? We can't.

God has a reason for all of us to get up off our asses and see what's going on around us. God wants us to discover that there is one lost person out there He has appointed us to help Jesus find. It is that interaction that God can and will use to change lives...ours included. But if we don't move, the moments pass us by, often unseen, and some lost person falls through the multiple cracks of our broken world.

We move...grace moves.

That is what keeps me going despite my difficulties is the opportunity God has appointed for me to sieze. Even if it is to help Jesus heal one life, then it is still worth it. This is the ministry we cannot leave to our pastors to do. It is the ministry God has given to each one of us. We can't know the who, what and where....so we have to keep moving so God can place it in front of us.

We move...grace moves.