Living in the Land of the Lost

Matthew 9:10-13

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

I’m just going to confess and tell you right up front where I was. I may as well, God already knows, He went with me. I know it was not an appropriate place for me to be, but I have no regrets and I would go again to see what I saw and feel how I felt. It had been a long time since I was that aware of my surroundings or to desperation in the world to be loved. The past 20 or so years of my life I have been very sheltered. I have been living no-where near the edge on which I thought I lived. In fact I have been in the suburbs of Christianity, where language is not colorful, people are dressed appropriately, most hair is within a few shades of its God given color and I feel safe. So I may as well just fess up, “I, the pastor’s wife, went to a dance club, bar, saloon, tavern whatever title you would like to use.” There you go, now you know, and I would still go again.

It was never my intention to go. I was supposed to be going out to dinner with associates. I do believe it was God’s intention for me to see what I saw and feel what I felt. My eyes where opened wide and I would prefer that they never again be shut quite so tight.

The building had a nice size crowd when we first entered, but soon it was filled to capacity. Not only was it full to capacity, but people were lined up outside the door waiting to come in. As soon as one group would leave another group was filing in filling every possible gap. No nook or cranny was without a body filling its area. Everyone had the same intentions. They were all there to escape, feel free for a time and be someone they weren’t even if for just for a moment.

What surprised me at first was the amount of people who where looking for something to fulfill an emptiness in their lives, but were looking in the wrong place.

What truly shocked me was the way people thought it was appropriate to dress and behave. It was as if the mild mannered secretary by day became the vixen call girl by night and was proud of her alter ego. She was not humble or embarrassed, but brazenly flaunting her desire to be loved. It did not matter who the man or woman in her line of sight was, every dance became a mating call. She acted out her desires with reckless abandon allowing anyone willing to participate; all the while consuming more alcohol, for the soul purpose of becoming numb to any feelings. Drinking until she was no longer able to distinguish appropriate from inappropriate or maybe not even caring. After all love is love, isn’t it? It made me sad to think that she would have so little respect for herself or for God.

As I watched the lives of the lost unfold around me, I felt as if the walls were closing in. I was so far removed from my own known reality that I became overly aware of how sheltered I had let myself become. There were so many individuals stepping on me, spilling their drinks on me and approaching me in a manner that felt, okay I’ll just say it, it felt sleazy. Instinct kicked in and I immediately pulled up my drawbridge and began formulating my escape plan.

I wanted to cry not because I was uncomfortable, but because every one of these souls was lost. They were living in an unrealistic world, not knowing the comfort and preciousness of unconditional true love. My heart wept for them and I saw them as God saw them, they were in need of a Savior. I saw myself in them. They were me. Me before my heart was opened and I had let God in. It was not only uncomfortable because they were lost, but it was uncomfortable because I was watching what could have so easily been, my own reflection looking back at me.

So I watched, secretly wishing and praying that all the souls in the dance club would find the love, peace, fulfillment, joy and purpose they were really looking for. Wondering what the church would have to do to have a congregation as devoted as this dance club had patrons. All the while feeling torn up inside because these devoted club goers were standing for nothing I believed. We were on opposite sides of the battle lines and I felt them advancing. I stood knowing that I was one, but Christ makes me many on the battlefield. I held my ground standing in the gap for the lost souls around me.

The party I was with had been quietly teasing me all night about being out of my element as if I would compromise. My support was limited and I knew that it was time for me to leave and take a stand for what I truly believed. My escape was easy, I turned to those who had brought me and said, “I’ll get a cab go back to the hotel and order room service, I’ll see you in the morning.” It was then that those with me realized that my role as pastors was wife my title, but child of God was my being.

I am glad I had the opportunity to step into the world. I now know that I am not of the world and I can stand in the moments when of world and no longer of the world collide. But most importantly I can say, “I have been, I have seen and I have stood in the gap. Crying the tears of God, feeling His heartbreak and I knowing His heat beat.

The lost are wounded, sick and weary. We have what will cure them, but it will do them no good if we do not share the cure. If we sit inside our homes and churches just talking to other Christians about Christ we are helping no one. We need to go into the world of the lost bringing them the escape plan.

Living in the land of the lost does not mean conforming to the land of the lost. We must be familiar with the land of the lost to relate and reach the lost, transporting them into the land of the light. A land filled with love, peace, joy and purpose.