Even If Just One

There is something about the story of the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to go after the one that has always stayed with me. We often hear this story from the perspective of being the one who was lost. We picture ourselves as the sheep that wandered away, and we rejoice that the Shepherd was willing to leave everything behind to come find us.

We have all seen and loved that picture of the little lamb with Jesus in the background, running toward it. It is so easy for us to relate to the lamb because most of us have experienced that moment. We were lost, crying, standing alone, feeling hopeless, and Jesus found us right there.

Most of our stories are stories of rock bottom. And at that place, we encounter the powerful, life-changing love of God.

But what if you are no longer the one who needs to be found?

What if you are one of the ninety-nine?

There comes a point in following Jesus when we have to realize that being found was never supposed to be the end of the story. At some point, the ones who have been rescued are called to become the ones who go looking. We are called to leave what is comfortable, familiar, and safe and follow the Shepherd into places where there are still people who need to hear the Gospel.

And that is a much harder thing to live than it is to talk about.

Of course, we all dream of being used by God. We paint ourselves as the hero in every story. We can even develop a sense of self-righteousness when we do something that looks like kingdom work.

We get a taste of Kingdom work, and then we spend so much time after He finds us asking:

"What now, God?"

"What's my purpose?"

"How can I climb this religious ladder and get to a place of real power so I can do more?"

"What's my calling?"

It is easy to celebrate the ninety-nine. We know what it looks like to gather together, worship together, study the Word together, encourage one another, and build something beautiful. There is nothing wrong with those things. In fact, we need them. But eventually Jesus asks us what we are willing to leave behind for the sake of the one who isn't there yet.

That question has followed me for years.

One of the most dangerous prayers I have ever prayed was, “Lord, I give You ALL of me, for ALL of You.”

I meant it when I prayed it. What I didn't fully understand at the time was that giving God all of me meant He would eventually ask me to give up things I had spent years building. It meant that obedience wouldn't always look reasonable. It meant that sometimes He would ask me to walk away from something good because He had something else for me to do.

Years ago, I left a job I had spent twenty years building. I started a business from scratch and poured myself into it. I worked hard, built relationships, and invested in people who, in the end, never really cared about what I was building. Eventually, we had to close it.

From the outside, that probably looked like failure.

But God had something else in mind.

There was one person He wanted me to reach. One girl who was his business plan. One life changed, His billion dollar deal. He had me do it all for HER.

Then we bought a motorhome and started traveling across the country. There were moments when it was exciting and moments when it was absolutely ridiculous. We dealt with breakdowns, mechanical problems, changes in plans, family struggles, and all the other wonderfully inconvenient things that come with putting your entire family into a giant vehicle and driving it around the country.

There were plenty of moments when I wondered what in the world we were doing. And eventually, I realized that maybe the point wasn't the bus.

Just like it wasn't the business.

Maybe it wasn't the travel.

Maybe it wasn't even about all the places we were going.

Maybe it was about one person.

One conversation. One encounter. One person who needed to know that Jesus was real, that He loved them, and that their story wasn't over. The one He sent us across the country for has a name, he has a story and now he has a "Jesus came for me" testimony too.

Sometimes we want God to show us the whole picture before we obey. We want to know where we're going, what the outcome will be, how everything is going to work, and whether the sacrifice will be worth it. We want to know that all the years, all the money, all the inconvenience, all the uncertainty, and all the things we had to surrender are going to produce something big enough to justify what they cost us.

But what if God isn't asking us to see the whole picture?

What if He is simply asking us to be faithful to the one He put in front of us?

We can become so focused on numbers that we forget the value of one. We can measure success by how many people are listening, how many people are coming, how many people are reading, how many people are following, or how much something has grown. We can convince ourselves that if something isn't reaching a crowd, it must not be worth doing.

But Jesus never treated people like numbers.

He went after one.

He stopped for one.

He spoke to one.

He healed one.

He noticed the one everyone else overlooked.

And if we are willing to follow Him, there will be times when He asks us to do the same.

There will be moments when obedience doesn't make sense because the thing He is asking you to do seems far too small for the amount of sacrifice it requires. You may spend years preparing for something only to discover that the assignment was never about building something impressive. You may give up something comfortable because God is asking you to go somewhere uncomfortable. You may pour everything you have into something that reaches only one person.

And that one person still matters.

I think sometimes we forget that the ninety-nine are supposed to grow up.

The ninety-nine aren't supposed to stay in the pasture forever waiting for the Shepherd to keep coming back and reassuring them that they are loved. They are loved. They are safe. They have been found. But there are still sheep outside the fold.

There are still people who don't know Him.

There are still people who are hurting, searching, wandering, and waiting for someone to come looking.

And sometimes that someone is you.

So when God asks you to leave what is familiar, go.

When He asks you to sacrifice something you thought you were going to keep, trust Him.

When He asks you to pour into something that seems too small to matter, remember that the Kingdom of God has never measured the value of a person by their numbers.

Maybe you won't reach thousands.

Maybe you won't build the thing you thought you were building.

Maybe no one will understand why you made the choices you made.

Maybe, at the end of it all, you will look back and realize that everything you thought was the destination was actually just the road that led you to one person.

And if that is what Jesus asked of you, then it was worth it.

Because one is not insignificant when that one is the person Jesus came looking for.

The ninety-nine have been found.

Now go.

Even if just one.

And remember, that when the ONE stops being enough to be leave it all behind for, you no longer serve the heart of the Father but the heart of your own will. He stepped down from heaven, became FULLY HUMAN, born of a woman. Lived a life of meekness, suffering all the pains of this fallen dead world

just to make sure that we could be with Him. If He is willing to do that, He is willing to make you uncomfortable to reach others. The question is....... ARE YOU WILLING?