Fun fact: The actor, Marlon Brando, wandered so much on his way to kindergarten, that his sister Jocelyn eventually had to take him to class on a leash. Maybe he just didn’t want to go to class. Or, maybe he’s like me and just practiced Maryann’s Law: You can always find what you’re not looking for. Seems to be the habit of my life. I can walk into my shop intent on getting or doing something, and end up working or cleaning an entirely different thing. Wandering is in our DNA. We wander on purpose or simply just wander. We wander from things and into other things, with or without course corrections or conviction. Wandering in the scripture is not a good thing though. There is a plethora of stories explaining saints and sinners wandering from God. The entire volume of scripture exposes man’s natural inclination to wander from his Creator. In God’s master plan for us, we find the Law of the Search: The first place to look for anything is the last place you’d expect to find it. As we strive toward a destination of self; God shows Himself in that very place.
Moses was tending sheep and wandered on a rough terrain mountain. What did he find there? God. Or, perhaps it’s better stated that this is where God found him. David wasn’t intending to be anointed the next King of Israel, but that’s exactly what happened when he was summoned to the house from the field. Peter wasn’t looking for Jesus when fishing, he was fishing. He caught nothing and was in-turn caught by the Savior. Daniel wasn’t intending to be a Prophet, especially in favor of a foreign conquering power. It was in this position God met him and showed him wondrous things. Matthew wasn’t intending to be a disciple of Jesus, but it was in his toll booth where he met the Savior and answered the call. In each and every story of the Bible we find character after character ‘doing their thing’, and suddenly ‘found’ by God. As if they were lost. Well, they were. They were wandering aimlessly in this life, even though to them it looked like they were going about, on purpose, with a purpose.
The same truth holds for us. We are a determined people. Determined to get a thing, do a thing, or be a thing. Even the most lazily among us, determines to do just that. In other words, we have a prideful stubbornness about us. God searches us out. Isn’t that a beautiful concept. It reminds me of another law by Henry L. Miller called Miller’s Corollary: Objects are lost because people look where they are not instead of where they are. That’s true. Wouldn’t you look right where something is, if you knew where it was? Of course you would. It would save time, expense, and energy. Again, God searches us out. He knew all along where we were, but we didn’t. We are so convinced of our present situation that we won’t listen to outside advice on the subject. But God. God sheds light on our darkness and demonstrates His love afresh, by exposing our lostness. Before salvation in Christ, a person is ‘lost’ in their sin, away from their God, and hopelessly condemned by their sin. When we receive the gift of salvation Jesus provided, we are ‘saved’, born again, purged from our sin, and released from our bonds of sin. One thing remains though… we are still humans. We still maintain a depravity in our flesh. Paul speaks of this more fully in Romans 8. You don’t need me telling you that we are messed up still, even after a glorious salvation. Humanity is the problem. Our tendency to wander is still alive and kicking! The singular difference is: we no longer are slaves to it. We now have an out, by way of the Holy Spirit. He provides an off ramp when our flesh is running-a-muck. When I’m tempted, the Spirit provokes me to obey from within; now the choice is mine. I can choose to obey God and His word, or I can do what my flesh (my self humanity) wants.
Even though we are no longer slaves to sin, and no longer ‘lost’ in the sense of no relationship with Jesus, we are still human. In this state, we can tend toward wandering still. This is why. in so many of the cases I mentioned before from the scripture, they were believers. They were followers of Yahweh or Jesus, but wandered in it and with it (religion). So the same is true for us. We still wander. We need to be ‘found’ but not in the sense of lost again, but more so: found out. We need exposure to God, His word, and His people. I need it, and I know you need it too. We need more of it than we have ever needed. We need to be sharpened, iron striking iron, sharpening each other. I need the accountability, the ‘check’ of my selfness. How about you?
In Luke 15 we find what Matthew 18 parallel’s but not fully. Matthew talks about the lost sheep, but does not divulge the lost coin or son. These two stories are located just in Luke 15. I love to teach on this passage. It can be used for lost people, but I see the originality of it was to those who already had a relationship with God. In other words… our present lostness (wandering) as His child. We are never lost from His sight or attention, but we sure can find great hiding places… so we think. In each and every one of these cases the item was ‘lost’ and then ‘found’. In each and every one of the cases, the item became lost. The sheep went astray; the coin we will cover next; and the son was, well, a son. So in fact, we can illustrate this to our present lostness as a believer pretty easily. We tend to lose myself in the worldly pleasure, lazily get hung up on self, or wander aimlessly in carnal ambitions. While I’m saved. All the while my Father in Heaven knows exactly where I am and why I’m doing it. I am one messed up sheep, coin, and son. Never truly ‘lost’, but more or less ‘stuck’. Focus on that for just a minute, by way of: the lost coin.
“Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” (Luke 15.8-10)
He said: “And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me”. Isn’t there joy when you find a lost item? It was always there, never truly lost, but lost to you. We are never lost to the Father. He knows our whereabouts, but we don’t. We seem to lose ourself, get stuck in a crack in the floorboards of this life. The more you pour over this parable the more it seems ridiculous, which means it must be spiritually discerned. I see not only the parable meaning, but also it’s parallel to my life. God, the angels above, and saints with me, have rejoiced over my lost condition when I was saved. The same truth has occurred when I have wandered away, as the parable demonstrates. Shouldn’t we also do the same? I have seen churches rejoice when someone get’s saved. I have seen less and less of that being celebrated though. It is more stoic and lackluster today than I have ever seen it. Where is the praise? Where is the rejoicing? Did you see in the passage the woman called over her neighbors and said to rejoice with her? Isn’t that the real response that should be shown?! Today, if you were that lady, you wouldn’t tell anyone because it would expose the fact that you lost something to begin with. Pride hinders us from sharing this excitement. True to the illustration given from Jesus, we should gather together as many friends as we can and be found rejoicing, when just one sinner repents. If you wander from God, you’re wrong, no mater how you want to explain it, you’re wrong. You need to repent. I bet if you were among a culture of people who rejoiced for that sort of thing, you would come clean with them too, say what’s been ailing you, and how God ‘unstuck’ you from your wandered condition. Why wouldn’t we rejoice for that sort of thing?!
I am calling on all churches and particularly the church I attend to: rejoice for the saved-sinner who repents! I am also calling on a holistic change in the way we report such a thing. We ought to call each other together, not just the ones who are of blood relation, and share the event. It isn’t highlighting our humanness… but rather the love of God to reach down again and again and rescue His coins. When this happens, things change. It sparks a revival for others to want to get ‘unstuck’ in their carnal existences. Jesus gave us eye-witness testimony of what happens behind the scene: “I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” Wow! This is happening there… why wouldn’t we obey it here?