S5 E18 - Attack of the Killer Cicadas

I was attacked by a swarm of cicadas while on the mower last night, and in trying to swat them away I knocked my earbud off into the grass. It was expensive, important, and very small. So I spent 20 minutes on my hands and knees until I finally found it! 

Do we realize that God values souls equally? He came to seek and save the lost. Like the parable of the lost sheep or the lost coin, we learn the lengths that God will go to find those who are lost and 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? 

 Welcome back to season 5 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! My name is BJ Sipe, and I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. And I’m excited to share a few moments together with you learning some important lessons from the simplest things. Let’s grow together! 

Today was the start of the annual neighborhood yard sale that goes on for a couple of days, and my wife has been hard at work getting ready for it over the past week. It’s amazing the kinds of things people want to buy that have simply taken up space in our garage and closets. It’s like they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. While this has primarily been Kylie’s thing, there was one task that I needed to accomplish before the yard sale began – and that was to mow the lawn, which I love to do. However, there is one small problem with mowing the lawn right now in Kentucky – the cicadas. If you don’t know much about these red eyed noise making pests, these particularly kind of insects are called periodical cicadas - which only emerge from underground every 17 years. Their life cycle has three stages – eggs, nymphs, and adults. The majority of their lives, nearly two decades, are spent underground where they feed on tree roots. However, the very last portion of their lives, which last around 4-6 weeks give or take, are the adult stage of their lives where they emerge from underground to lay eggs. We are in this 4-6 week stage currently in Kentucky with the Brood XIV periodical cicadas, and they have completely taken over, well, everything. Every tree, every bush, every building is literally covered in thousands upon thousands of these winged demons. But I discovered something else this week that apparently others are learning as well – they really like lawn mowers. 

Cicadas are attracted to noise and bright colors – and I just so happen to own a bright yellow cub cadet mower. So, let’s set the stage for you, shall we? I’m out in our front yard doing my laps with my riding mower last night, and per usual I’ve got in my ear buds to listen to music or podcasts while I mow the lawn. As I went along, periodically I would have to swat away a cicada that was dive bombing me, but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting…until! It came time for me to mow next to our magnolia tree that we planted 6 years ago when we moved into our house, when all of a sudden what had to be 15 or 20 cicadas took off from the tree and straight into my face. It was something straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Now I understand that these bugs are harmless, just gross, but when suddenly you have 20 silver dollar sized winged chirpers in your face – you kind of freak out. I wish we had a ring doorbell to capture what must have been the most comical scene on the block – because I killed the mower and immediately began frantically waiving my arms about my face like a maniac. However, in the process of doing so, I not only managed to knock off my hat, but also my right earbud piece went flying out of my ear and somewhere into the freshly cut grass of the front yard. I applied the break and immediately jumped down off the mower to see if I could find where the earpiece had landed…but this is a small, black inconspicuous earbud…and I had no idea what direction it went. 

I wasn’t done mowing the yard yet, and the sun was starting to set, but there wasn’t a chance I finished my task until I found it. See these aren’t just any earbuds, they are Sony WF-1000XM4’s. At least at the time I purchased them a few years ago, they are the industry’s leading wireless headphones for noise cancelation technology – and they weren’t cheap either. While I could purchase them for a much-reduced rate at this point, when I bought them, they were around $250. I use these headphones every day, and their noise cancelation is better than any other tech I’ve tried. I simply had to find it. My first idea was to grab the rake and see if it would flip up as I raked through the grass, but that was no dice. So, I looked, clump of grass after clump of grass, on my hands and knees through our front yard. My neighbors must have thought I had lost my mind, not just my earbud with how long I was out there mulling through our grass. Finally, after about 20 minutes, my fingers ran across something that I knew was not rock or dirt – and out from its grassy lair came my lost earbud. 

As I jubilantly hopped back onto my mower to finish the rest of my work sporting both earbuds again, I couldn’t help but consider the text of Luke 15 – a chapter dedicated to the finding of lost things. In particular, my mind went to the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin. Starting in vv. 1, this is what Jesus would teach to a crowd of religious leaders that expressed contempt for the company that Jesus kept. 
 
 “All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him. And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 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. “Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the silver coin I lost!’ I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”

There are so many lessons that we can take from this text, but there is only one that I want to really emphasize for our time today. What caused such contempt on the part of the Pharisees and scribes towards those that had come to listen to Jesus? It was that they saw these people as having little to no value. After all, these were sinners, outcasts, tax collectors, traitors. Certainly, the religious leaders viewed themselves as being worthy of Jesus time & attention, but these people? They were nothing. Jesus, on the other hand, would challenge their evil hearts by producing these two parables…the lost sheep, the lost coin. 

Why would the shepherd search high and low for his lost sheep? Why would he put himself in harm’s way and being willing to travel over treacherous terrain in order to bring it home? Because he recognized the value of even one of his lambs. He knew his flock – they were under his provision and care, and the shepherd loves his sheep. He would stop at nothing in order to find it, because he knew the surpassing worth and value of each and every lamb in his care. 

Why would the woman search high and low for her lost coin? Why would she stay up all night, searching in every nook and cranny for it until she finds it? Historical evidence suggests that such a coin was not simply valuable because of its monetary worth, but that such a coin was likely a part of a headdress she wore as a dowry. Perhaps the closest example we would have today is if you lost your wedding ring. What measures would you take to find it? Just about anything, right? And why? Because you recognize its surpassing worthy and value – it’s special to you. It’s a part of you. It is worthy of any and all efforts in order to find it. 

Why does Jesus share these stories? Because my friends, the souls of others are the lost sheep or the lost coin. We need to stop seeing people like the world sees them, the way the religious leaders of the day saw others, and start seeing others the way that Jesus sees them. Each and every single person living upon this earth has surpassing worth and value because they have been made in the image of God. He formed and fashioned them, and he wants more than anything for them one day to return home to be with him. God has gone to every length in order to seek and save the lost – even at the cost of his own son. Jesus was willing to go to the cross for the sole purpose of saving us and one day bringing us home. If you ever want to know how much you’re worth, and how much God loves you, all you have to do is look to the cross – and you’ll have your answer spelled out from the blood of the Savior. So, the question that remains is this…what lengths are we willing to go to in order to help seek and save the lost? Do we love and value souls the way Christ does? May God soften our hearts, rid us of any and all prejudices or pride, and allow us to be spurned from a heart of compassion and love to do all we can to show those who are lost (and yet of great worth) the way home to Jesus. 

This has been the Set Your Mind Above Podcast, season 5 episode 18 – and I’m so thankful that we had this time to grow together! A new episode is dropped every Friday, so be sure to tune in next week.  Also, if you’re able to, go ahead and like and subscribe to the podcast, give us a good rating or most importantly share it with someone else – it would help to reach others that I never could alone.  And more than anything, always remember the following: know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.