S3 E18 - A Lost Little Girl & An Amazing Response

A little 5 year old girl went missing earlier this week in our county. Without hours, hundreds of people showed up to look for her from our community. I was getting ready to go join the search myself when the good news was announced that she was found, priase God! It was so touching to see how so many responded to join in helping to find this one lost little girl who was alone in the darkness of the night. Well...in the same way, Jesus is our good shepherd who leaves the 99 to find that 1 who is lost. God loves every single soul, and desperately desires for all to come home to him. Do we have that same heart to go searching for even one in the darkness of this world and do whatever it takes to bring them home? 

#SetYourMindAbovePodcast

Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths?

Would you believe me? 
 Hi, I’m BJ Sipe – and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above Podcast. 

I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father.

Thanks for tuning in!

Mondays are some of my absolute favorite days because they are my family days. I get to spend time playing with my kids, doing projects for my wife, and even occasionally getting to sleep in. This last Monday was no exception. I spent the majority of the day with my children: playing, wrestling, coloring, all the things that a 4 year old and a 3 year old want to do when their daddy is home. The highlight of the day was getting to head over to our friends the Gerlachs and enjoy their beautiful heated pool. It was our little 8 month old’s first time in the water, and she did so well! After wearing all the kids out, we came home, got baths, and got into bed. How I was expecting the rest of the night to go was simply to have some down time with Kylie before crashing early to be well rested for work the next day. But that is not at all what happened. As Kylie was scrolling on Facebook, she noticed an urgent message that had been issued by our Boyle County Sheriff’s Office just then. A little 5 year old girl named Emma Dunaway had been missing for several hours from her home not but 20 minutes from our house. Not only was she young, but she was autistic as well as nonverbal. As Kylie and I looked at this little girls picture, tears started to fill our eyes. Here we were, with all of our children nestled snug inside of their beds…but what if that was one of them? How terrifying would that be? And how terrified this little girl must be who was all alone lost in the pitch black darkness away from her family? As we read the comments, Kylie said, “We need to pray for her right now.” And we did. We prayed and begged God to act now, that he would help this little girl to be found and to be found safe. We begged that God would hear not only our prayers, but the prayers of thousands that were lifting this family up. We finished our prayer and went looking for more updates and information. It turned out that a search party was being formed, and that the community was welcoming volunteers to come out to look for her. At first I wasn’t sure where to go, but once I figured out where they were gathering and that they still needed volunteers, my heart was pricked. How could I sit here with my children safe in my home and not go out looking for this little girl? So I started to get ready, laying out clothes, grabbing a flashlight, etc. As I was doing this, the most wonderful update came across my screen from the Boyle County Sheriff’s Office: Emma had been found. I rushed into the other room and shared the news with Kylie, and both of us started to cry tears of joy for this family. She had been found several miles away from where she had last been seen, playing in the dirt and the mud as any 5 year old would. It was the perfect ending to a story that could have had such a dreadful outcome. The next day I woke up to the following message that had been put out by the Sheriff’s office: “As most of you know a 5 year old went missing last night and was safely located after 3 hours of searching. She was located several miles behind her residence in the knobs by one of the several search parties. As we sit here reflecting on the events that transpired last night we couldn't help but think how amazing it was to see a community band together for a greater good. We saw people from all backgrounds filled with a strong desire to help. Hundreds of our community members piled in willing to do whatever it took to find little Emma. It was inspiring. It was motivating. It was humbling. This post is to thank our awesome Boyle County community! We couldn't do what we do without you.” I loved the post and started reading the comments that followed. All of them, hundreds of them, were of parents locally that had also left their own children who were safe at home to go and search for this one little girl that was lost. The care, love, and concern for this one little girl by our community here made me so, so proud to be a resident of Boyle County. 

As I reflected on all of these things, I could not help but to think of the parallel that we see to the heart of the Lord as reflected in Luke 15. We read in vv. 3-7, “So he told them this parable: “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.” In this parable, we see the heart of God in the character of the Shepherd. I want you to stop and consider the following: how big of a deal is just one? In this story, the Shepherd has one sheep that has wandered off and become lost…but he still has 99 safe in his fold. Would it really be worth all of the effort to go and find that one? Would it be worth the danger to risk his life and spend his time to go out searching for what represented just 1% of his flock? The parable that Jesus tells us gives us the answer to that question, and it is an absolute resounding yes! Just as it was with the shepherd in this parable, our loving and merciful Father will stop at nothing to bring even one of his children home. In the eyes of the Lord, every single soul matters – for it is he who created them, died for them, and longs for them to be home with him for all eternity. What this parable teaches me is that even if there was only one person that would ever for all time have responded to the gospel…Jesus still would have been willing to die on the cross to make that possible. God’s love for every lost soul, yes even one, is unmatched. With this being said, it begs the question…does the shepherd in this parable reflect our hearts too? I was overwhelmed watching the love and outpouring of our community to find this one lost little girl and reunite her with her family. But my friends, do we have that same love and willingness to search for everyone who is spiritually lost and reconcile them back to their Eternal Father? Or do we go throughout our days, constantly in contact with those who are spiritually lost and yet think to say nothing to them about the gospel? It is so easy for us to go about our days with spiritual blinders on, not even thinking about those around us from a heart of indifference or apathy. I know those are hard words to swallow, but they are true nonetheless. We must learn to put on a heart of love, not of apathy, to those that are around us. To love someone enough to actually do something to help them if they are lost! Because here’s the reality of the situation…we were all once lost too, but now we have been found. We were found because someone else loved us enough to seek us out when we were lost, and do whatever it took to help reconcile us to our Father. Someone who possessed the heart of Paul when he would say, “To the weak I became weak, in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some. Now I do all this because of the gospel, so that I may share in the blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23) My friends…found people find people. I have heard it said before that Christianity can be defined as simply as one beggar telling another beggar where they found bread. Are we sharing the bread of life? May we become the kind of faith community that rises up to go out into the darkness of this world, and donned with the light of Christ, help to reconcile even one lost soul back to where they belong. 

Thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode, and I would invite you back every Thursday for a brand-new episode each week. If you haven’t already, be sure to find us on Facebook for future announcements or even some special video sessions. If you have benefited from this podcast, share it with someone else that you think would benefit from it also. Until next time, know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each & every day set our minds above.