As a Chaplain to Spiritus Theological College* I have just been at the first study weekend of the new academic year. Several students starting or returning to continue training for ordained or licensed lay ministry, some commencing an MA, others focussing on learning about chaplaincy and still others studying for their own personal benefit.
On Sunday, the Gospel passage used by many churches looked at two well-known parables told by Jesus. The parables of the Lost Coin and the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-10). They are perhaps appropriate ones for this time of year with many people feeling a bit ‘lost’ after starting or continuing at college, school, university or beginning a new job, for example.
I reflected with some of the College community about how they might be feeling a little bit like the lost sheep. Sat there wondering where they are. What they’ve done. And where they’re going. Thinking, ‘Why on earth have I done this? How am I going to manage everything?’
There are lots of life situations where we think we’re the only one who’s lost, aren’t there. We’re the only one who’s wondering what on earth we’ve done.
So if you are feeling like that too, I can assure you, you are not the only one. Not the only one feeling a bit lost.
Have a think back on other things in life that you’ve started and what that felt like at the beginning. The confusion, the uncertainty, all that. And how you are now. How much you have progressed, learnt, grown, matured.
And let’s think more about the lost sheep. Confused, wandering aimlessly, waiting to be found and taken back to a safer place. Embarrassed perhaps at the fact they have done something and now haven’t got a clue about where they are or what they’re going to do. Worried about what the other sheep might think. About eventually returning to the flock and all the other sheep going, ‘Baa – look at you, aren’t you stupid.’
And yet there we also have the shepherd. The one who has probably got a good idea about where the lost sheep is and finds it and brings it home, carrying it on their shoulders.
The imagery, the message, is familiar and clear.
There will have been for all of us times when we have felt lost. And I trust, for all of us, there have been times when we have been found and we have been carried by Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
And part of that reality of life and faith is the need to let ourselves be found.
To let ourselves be carried.
To let ourselves accept and know that we are not the only one who feels like we do.
To let ourselves receive the love and support of ‘the flock’ and the love and comfort of God.
You may also like to listen to a guided meditation on the Parable of the Lost Coin at:
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