Lost and Found

There are three ways to be lost: the first is when you don't know where you are going; the second is when you don't know where you are; and the third is when you don't even know how lost you are.

To be lost spiritually is to be disconnected from God. In the story of the woman who anoints Jesus with oil the woman is lost. She is, as Luke indicates, a woman of ill-repute; scorned by the other dinner guests. But she knows it. When she mixes her tears with the expensive oil to wash Jesus' feet, then lets down her hair to dry them she as much as admits it. Broken and ashamed, she seeks in that moment to reconnect with God the only way she knows how: at the feet of Jesus.

In that same story, Simon, the Pharisee,who secretly rebukes Jesus for allowing such intimacy with a known sinner, is also lost. But, unlike the woman, he cannot see it. He is so blinded by contempt for the woman he cannot see the awful truth: that at the moment he feels closest to God, he couldn't possibly be more lost.

To truly live sacrificially takes quieting the "Simon spirit" in each and everyone of us. It means, giving up the need to be better than someone.or at least no longer kidding ourselves into believing that we are Who are you "Simoning?" For whom do you have so much contempt that you cannot see how lost you are? Where might you begin to admit to your own lostness so that you can be found in Him?

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. I once was lost but now I am found.