Finding the Lost

by Ross A. Aalgaard, MSW, LGSW

612-332-7743 ext. 235
raalgaard@wpc-mpls.org

"Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:4-10, NRSV)

During this season of Lent, we come to some of Jesus' most familiar and potent teachings. In these two parables, I see the importance of living lives of wholeness and being connected. We are reminded that those who are considered outcasts or wayward, people who are marginalized and even forgotten in our society, have great significance and worth. Rather than saying that the majority is "whole," or at least "enough," and the outlier has no significance, Jesus teaches that the one that is lost possesses priceless value. In fact, "there is more spiritual joy in the holy realms over one who experiences wholeness and becomes connected than in the all the connectedness and wholeness of the crowd."

Our mission as a counseling center is to help people find wholeness and connectedness. Professionally, I am not quite like the shepherd and the woman, since I do not search for the lost, yet they often find their way to me. But I value the dignity of each one who comes along my path, and I choose to join them and celebrate with them in the process of finding wholeness and becoming connected. Ernest Kurtz puts it this way: Spirituality begins with the acceptance of our fractured being. To be human is to feel at times divided, fractured and broken (dare I add, lost?). It is at these moments, these holy moments, that we seek to connect with the things that can make us whole.

May this Lenten season be a time of mindfulness, of noticing the lost and the broken, whether within ourselves or in the lives of those around us, that we might do our part to bring wholeness to our fractured world.