have you ever been lost? not temporarily misplaced … but a panic overwhelms you, beads of sweat on your brow, gotta find someone to help you kind of lost?

although i don’t normally go there, last sunday i went to Jacob’s Well with a friend, where the pastor asked a similar question.

he went on to quote a few lines from Deep Survival by Lawrence Gonzales. the author saying that “being lost is a lot more than simply not knowing where you are. but to be lost is to go through a transformation.”

1. Denial.
2. Crap, I’m Lost.
3. Develop a misguided strategy.
4. Deterioration.
5. Resignation.

this transformation process generally leads to one of two outcomes:

1. You die.
or
2. You learn to survive in the new environment you’re lost in. make peace that you will not be rescued, and learn to live and survive where you are.

what is Jesus focused on when it comes to this transformation of being lost?

in Luke 15 we find: a lost lamb, a lost coin and a lost son. but what we really have here is a story of 3 finders… a good shepherd, a good woman and a good father.

Gonzales’ focus is on the survivor and the techniques of the survivor, where Jesus’ focus was on the rescuer. the lost person doing very little (all the coin did was be found), but the rescuer bringing back restoration. who goes out in search of survivors.

this says a lot about how we live our lives. many of us have become experts at just surviving.

but Luke 15 lies at the heart of who Jesus is and what His purpose is on earth. God manifests Himself in this person, Jesus Christ and says, “I come seeking out and saving and rescuing that which can’t save and seek itself.”

these parables were generated out of conflict:

“Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear Him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Survivor mentality vs. a Rescuer mentality.

The Pharisees are the survivors. Tax-collectors, the lost. Jesus sought out the lost, teaching them and eating with them. each parable ends with eating and a party… Jesus ate with sinners. a most offensive act in their society because they were not clean.

The survivors have spent a long time refining their survival routine to make life work (400 years). Stranded in a world they don’t recognize. And as a result, shun those who don’t adhere to their way of life (the sinners). They were so focused on surviving that they missed the incarnation of the God they had been waiting for and actually began to work against Him.

Both groups were lost… but only one group new it.

But here’s the thing: God’s not into your cleanness. God’s into rescuing you and making you into something new.

Are you in need of rescue or are you content with merely surviving?

source: Luke 15, Pastor Tim Keel and Deep Survival.