Shelved, Lost or just Ignored?

So, as you might have noticed I have been on a bit of a hiatus. The past half a year has been a reminder that anything you say 'can and will be used against you'. So I have written a number of posts and just left them as drafts in hopes that there was a possibility of positive outcomes... ...alas, that is not to be the case. I am still unsure if I will re-visit the last few months of thoughts and posts. However, today, as I vacuumed the place I was thinking about part of a sermon I heard on Sunday. It's been so long since I have heard anything so very life-giving.

Our girls pounced on us Sunday morning... ...not very early but with the demand that we needed to go to church. So in 15 minutes we have to achieve some semblance of normalcy and were out the door. Interestingly, we ended up at a service where there was an unexpected guest speaker... ...what a blessing! He mostly spoke on the 'Lost Chapter', that would be Luke chapter 15, where Jesus shares 3 stories about lost things: a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son.

The first thing that impacted me was the call Randy issued to the church about her responsibility to the lost. All the other stuff is well and good, but her primary purpose needs to be about people: redeemed for, restored to, re-invested in the kingdom of God. He focused on the state of the lost and the motivation to find. We need to be motivation first by love, by compassion for those who do not know they are lost. We also need to be motivated by the knowledge of what we lack with the absence of those who know they are lost and those who grieve for them. And finally we need to be motivated by blessing that will come from the lost being brought back into purposeful action.

But, today as I cleaned I thought more about the lost coin than I had just a few days ago. Of course, I knew the story, but I hadn't considered all the implications of the events.

A woman had 10 coins and lost one. She thoroughly searched her house to find that missing coin. When she finds the missing coin she celebrates by calling her friends and neighbours over to her house.

A party to celebrate finding a coin. The coin was probably about a days wages for the average worker in the field. Celebrating likely cost all, more or the majority of that coin. But that coin was put back into circulation, it served the purpose for which it was created. A coin is made to be spent, that's the point of it's existence; on the ground, under a table, in a crack in the floor keeps the coin from achieving it's purpose, it's useless.

I wonder if people, even within the church, are like that coin. They are lost to their purpose, unintentionally or intentionally. For what ever reason we may find ourselves in a place where we are not useful; we might have been shelved for later use, we might be put in a safe place and forgotten, we might have been brushed off the table and rolled into an unknown location. I think then we might consider ourselves 'lost'. What possible assurance could come from this realization?

Someone is looking for you. Someone is looking for you to put you back in circulation, to use you for the purpose for which you have been created. Although, today you might be on a shelf, in a corner or swept off the table, you have been created for a purpose and the one who knows that purpose is looking for you to put you back in circulation.