The Lost did not have our natural advantages. They did not know about Jesus, they did not pray. Or, if they did pray, it was to a god who didn't exist, or who wasn't naturally good like ours if He (for creators were always a He) did.
Sometimes, we reached out to the Lost. We'd host a community event or rake leaves or pass out light-bulbs (I think it was light-bulbs?). Sometimes, one of them would even develop a friendship with one of the Found. At which point the Found would slowly begin to orient the Lost to the one who could Find them. Friendship evangelism, we called it. I do not know if any of the Lost were ever Found at our churches, but there were probably at least a few.
At other times, someone who had been Found would side back into the land of the Lost. A few people I knew moved between the two worlds in more-or-less predictable cycles. A few years of being Found would lead to a few years of being Lost, which would lead to a few more years of being Found.
Most people, though, were either Lost or Found and, upon sliding into one state of being or the other, stayed in that state regardless of what anyone else said or did to change their status.
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2 comments:
Isn't it just plain crazy how we like to "profile" each other.
The lost and found terminology has always been perplexing to me. When Jesus tells the stories about lost things, it doesn't seem to have much to do with the item and how they can get back to the right place. It seems to me that it is about the person seeking that lost item and how much they want/need it. When Christians talk about lost people, it is all about getting people to do something or believe something...I think we don't know what to do with the Jesus of the Bible, so we try to interpret things so that He is more predictable (and perhaps more like us)...a cardboard cutout sort of Person/God. Yuck!!
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