God's math

[Cliff Fletcher]

I was surprised by the accounts given about lost sheep in today's meditation - I guess hearing the severity of concern for even one lost one was of most interest. It is a beautiful thing to read of people not at all connected to our Bible (I assume these Bedouin shepherds) underlining the depth of concern they feel for even one sheep! Made me feel like a lesser shepherd - I love hanging out with sheep but I'm not sure I feel the depth of loss that these shepherds experience in loosing even only one...

I believe a discipline every believer needs to participate in is the reading of Luke 15 regularly - a couple of times a month. I teach this, I disciple people in this, I even practice this. I believe this chapter where God says, and He says it again and then a third time for impact speaks loudly of His heart for the lost. Three parables underlining Jesus' depth of concern for even only one. It is so very easy as a leader to not be concerned with negligable numbers, small percentages, or one family leaving. It's easy because we are very concerned with more, bigger, and many. God's math is not ours - it would seem God's is more like a shepherd's! One counts. One is worth loosing sleep over, thinking about, going into the wilderness to find. So I find myself at the end of today's meditation needing to ask forgiveness for buying into the wrong math. And I find myself re-energized to pray for my one neighbour (at a time), and excited about the fact that the extra time chatting with the server at the restaurant was not wasted time. Leading means one person sought at a time...