This morning I read a sentence from a Johnny Cash Devotional that stopped me:
“No Christian should regard any sinner as a hopeless case.”
Then came Jesus’ story of the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to search for the one who has wandered away.
And suddenly I saw something.
The shepherd did not stand safely among the ninety-nine and complain about the foolish sheep that wandered off.
He went after it.
He didn’t label it.
He didn’t write it off.
He didn’t decide it wasn’t worth the trouble.
He went toward the one who was lost.
I wonder how often I do the opposite.
I can look at someone whose beliefs, choices, politics, lifestyle, religion, or worldview are very different from mine and begin seeing the difference before I see the person.
Before long, I have put them into a category.
Them.
And sometimes, without ever saying the words, I may have decided they are a hopeless case.
But Jesus doesn’t see hopeless cases.
He sees people worth pursuing.
That changes something for me.
The question is no longer simply, “What do they believe?”
Perhaps Jesus is asking me:
“Rosie, how do you see them?”
Do I see an opponent to correct?
A problem to solve?
Someone whose ideas frighten or frustrate me?
Or do I see someone made in the image of God—someone Jesus loves enough to pursue?
This is where following Jesus becomes very personal.
Because I cannot control whether another person turns toward God.
But I can ask God to examine my heart toward them.
Have I written them off?
Have I allowed a label to replace a name?
Have I become more interested in being right than in loving someone well?
The Shepherd goes toward the one.
And if I am following the Shepherd, perhaps that is where I should be going too.
Lord, when I see a hopeless case, examine me.
Remove the labels I have placed on people.
Give me Your eyes for the one in front of me.
Make me an instrument of Your grace.
And teach me not merely to defend what is true, but to love people toward the One who is Truth.
Maybe the person I have been tempted to call hopeless is precisely the person Jesus is asking me to move toward.
He sees truthfully.
He loves redemptively.
And He goes after the one.
That is where I want to follow him—Rosie
