The Lost Coin

‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’

Luke 15:9b

Have you ever considered yourself a lost coin that is in need of finding? Well this is something many of us struggle with from time to time. And I was recently confronted with this truth.

Like a sheep we sometimes wander away from home – all that is familiar, good and that which brings us a sense of peace and purpose. We wander from love into hate, from what seems mundane or pedestrian to follow the trails of “greener pasture”. Along these trails we encounter wolves. Wolves who are more than ready to attack, mercilessly. You are the meal they need to ensure their survival and quite aware of your gullibility they pounce and you don’t even know this. They pose as friends, confidants, when really they just need a stepping stone or two to the top.

But before you inevitably find yourself in such a predicament you need to know the lifeline you will draw for. You need to remain connected with a lifeline you safely stored away for the day you need it. People who will let you go far and wide but will defend you when you require it. Those who will see your vision when you suddenly go blind from all the negative well wishers. Those “well-wishers” who can only see your glass perpetually half empty but never their own. Reach for that lifeline, those persons, who are strong enough to hold your weight, when you cannot carry it.

Do you have a return ticket when it’s time to leave the space you are in. To move away from the party that you no longer belong at.

Leave. A word that’s easy to say but hard to do. Do you feel lost in a vertex of being lost? Are you the sheep that can NEVER be found because you try to save yourself in sinking mud? One day we who are lost have to “smarten up” to the fact that we are lost because we mistook dust for the glitz and glamour, it was too dry and brittle to yield anything good. “Smarten up” to the knowledge that that war we fought in, was never for our gain. But instead withdraw, slowly but with finality; we need to raise the white flag of surrender and be satisfied with those gains that were ours to possess.