I Was a Lost Sheep
Well, I wasn’t a lost sheep as much as I felt like a lost sheep. I’ll explain after the Bible reading.
Luke 15: 3-6
So He told them this parable, saying,
“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?
“When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’
Here is my story of my time as a lost sheep.
My favorite toy as a youth, was my marine style BB-gun. It wasn’t powerful, but to me it was an army rifle. When I was in the fourth grade, two of my friends and I went hunting in the Big Thicket forest around Porter, TX.
We walked back and forth around the trail in the woods. After a couple of hours of hunting with our bb-guns, we decided we needed to go back home. Since the trail we were on wound around like a Christmas ribbon candy, we took the short cut, left the known trail, and just cut through the forest. Bad mistake! Within 20 minutes we were lost and darkness was falling. I remember that we had the good sense to save some of our ammunition (bb’s) just in case a mountain lion were to attack us. (I don’t know where any mountain lions can be found in east Texas woods).
Lost and afraid, we walked and prayed for another two hours. Finally we came upon a lighted house in the woods. We knocked on the door and the man drove us back home.
We soon found out that there were search parties out hunting us.
Later I reflected on this event and realized a few things.
1. When you mess up, do your best to help yourself, but as soon as possible ask somebody for help. Thanks to the unknown man who lived in the woods.
2. When you are lost and confused, prayer is a wonderful source to lean on. One might say that we didn’t need prayer because we found the man in the house. But, how do we know whether we found the man because we prayed.
3. When you are struggling, don’t do stupid things. We knew we needed to save our precious ammunition (bb’s) for a possible mountain lion. At least do the best you know to do.
4. Don’t quit! When you are struggling, just keep on trying. There is help waiting for you that you don’t even know about, i.e. The man in the house in the woods and search parties.
Lonnie Davis