• From Lost To Found

    By: Kristen L. McNulty



    Recently my mom and I were re-mincsing about some of our vacations when my brother and sister and I were kids and one memory came up that I've been mulling over ever since.

    My grandfathers side of the family were having a family reunion near Toronto and we decided to head down for it, so my grandparents Oma and Opa, My mom, sister brother and I piled into a mini-van and made the trek down.

    Now coming from a small town like Timmins, Toronto can be quite the overwhelming experience. Tons of traffic, big freeways, lots of exits. And it wasn't long after we entered the city limits that we became completely lost. And this was in the days before GPS'.

    We ended up pulling off into an office complex and were pouring over the map when a guy driving a minivan drove by. Seeing we were lost, he pulled over and started to give us directions. But then did something better and completely unexpected. He said never mind, follow me.

    So we got back in the van and followed this amazing stranger as he navigated us through the streets and got us where we needed to be, before driving off with a wave. It was an incredible act of kindess and but even more than that, after giving it some thought, it's a beautiful picture of what our lives as Christians should look like.

    All of us who know Christ as our Savior were once wandering lost, without a clue of where to go in life or even an idea of what we were looking to find to fill the hole in our souls. We were lost, but now we're found.

    Now that we know the way Home, the path to take that brings someone to Jesus and completely changes their lives, we are called to help others that are lost to find the way. And if you're anything like me, sometimes in a traditional witnessing opportunity, I'll stumble out the directions to someone who's searching, but I don't think that's enough. Instead of just saying the words to the lost, imagine how amazing it would be if each one of us did like that guy did for my family, and took the time to actually walk the path with them, step by step leading them right where they need to go?

    So what does this look like? It looks like a generation of believers who instead of patting ourselves on the back because we happened to mention Jesus a time or two to someone else, would not be satisifed with that.

    It looks like an army rising up that is committed to doing WHATEVER IT TAKES to bring the lost to the One who will call them found. It looks like building relationships with those who don't know Christ and being there for them and showing them step by step the path they can take to move from Lost to Found.

    It looks like befriending the guilty, reaching out to the hurting, and instead of saying Jesus, being Jesus to them until the light that you're shining makes them want to move out of the darkness.

    It looks like a lifestyle of radical obedience to Christ, jumping into the deep end of His kingdom work instead of being content to wade in the shallow end.

    It looks like the kind of faith we're told to live in the Bible. The very life of faith it can be easy to complacently stay away from.

    In Luke 15:4 Jesus said: "If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?"

    That's exactly what a shepherd does. When he loses a sheep, he goes after it. He doesn't yell out to the sheep directions on how to find its way back. He physically leaves comfort and safety and goes out to find the sheep and then lead it step by step back home.

    So will you do the same? Will you leave the comfort zone of the Christian 99 and go out into the world to bring the lost 1 back home?

    Had that man in Toronto only given us verbal directions, there's a very good chance we would have never found our way. But because he showed us the way, we got where we needed to be in no time. I want to be that person for others, leading them from lost to found. Will you join me?

    Closing off with some wisdom from Charles Spurgeon. He wrote,

    If there existed only one man or woman who did not love the Savior, and if that person lived among the wilds of Siberia, and if it were necessary that all the millions of believers on the face of the earth should journey there, and every one of them plead with him to come to Jesus before he could be converted, it would be well worth all the zeal, labor, and expense. If we had to preach to thousands year after year, and never rescued but one soul, that one soul would be full reward for all our labor, for a soul is of countless price.


    Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.

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