
Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.
Today's Gospel: Matthew 18:12-14
How many, many, many ways there are to become lost in our broken world.
I’ve been there, friend. In 2016, after our youngest son became desperately sick with seizures that we couldn’t find a way to stop, I wandered from the righteous path into a wilderness of anger and despair. I was alone and fearful and very far indeed from the Good Shepherd.
So let’s just acknowledge that piece first. Will the Shepherd let you stray? Oh yes, He will. He respects our freedom and allows us the space to make some truly dreadful and self-defeating choices sometimes.
I sat alone for a long time, lost and afraid. The only thing I did right (as opposed to the many things I’m quite sure I did wrong) was to occasionally throw up a weary utterance:
“Help my unbelief.”
And He came. He wandered out into my personal darkness, offering a hand, a lift, a boost, but I was too trapped in my own anxiety to recognize them. He kept returning. He kept answering my call -- my pitiful bleat! -- and He sought me out, over and over again, most often through the loving words and actions of my friends and family.
He didn’t force my hand. He came, and He invited, and He waited. He was there, still waiting, for that single moment when I pushed aside my panic long enough to lift my own hand in response, to take hold of the one He had been extending all along.
There has been so much rejoicing in the years since. That seizing child turns seven today; the Good Shepherd has redeemed my son’s story, and mine, so completely it would be unrecognizable to five-years-ago me.
If you are wandering, He is seeking. You are His. You are neither forgotten nor alone. It is not His will for you to be lost.
Ponder:
Are you struggling with a situation that is putting distance between you and the Good Shepherd?
Pray:
Heavenly Father, keep me under Your watchful eye. When I struggle, allow me to rest in the knowledge that it is not Your will for me to be lost.
Copyright 2022 Christy Wilkens
About the Author

Christy Wilkens
Christy Wilkens, wife and mother of six, is an armchair philosopher who lives in Austin, TX. She writes at FaithfulNotSuccessful.com about disability, faith, doubt, suffering, community, and good reads. Her first book, Awakening at Lourdes: How an Unanswered Prayer Healed Our Family and Restored Our Faith, a memoir about a pilgrimage with her husband and son, will be released by Ave Maria Press in 2021.
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