I Once Was Lost: A Reflection

HRH Pixie is a rescue puppy. She was rescued by a former parishioner and friend who is a veterinarian. We are all thankful to Dr. Jay for giving her a new life and home. ❤️🐾 In a way, she had once been lost and was found/rescued by Dr. Jay.

This past Sunday the story of John Newton, among others, was one of my illustrations. I once was blind, but now I see. The gospel lesson centered on the story of Blind Bartimaeus. Even though he was physically blind, his faith literally opened his eyes! In John Newton’s case, it was his own spiritual awakening which God used to open his own eyes which began his transformation from a slave-ship captain to a servant of God. I was thankful for the opportunity to reflect on my own times of darkness and “blindness” and the opening of my eyes thanks to Spirit. Thomas Merton wrote about how the Good Shepherd opens our eyes and welcomes us home.

God is the Father who fights to defend and rescue His child. The life of the Child of God is not in the “development of spirituality” but in obedience to the Good Shepherd who seeks him, knowing he is lost. It is in solitude that we recognize, with a shock, how lost we have been, and that now we are found, rescued, recovering conscience, returning to ourselves, to Truth, carried by Him who has sought and found us. – Dancing in the Waters of Life: The Journals of Thomas Merton, Vol Five (end of 1965)

I am thankful for such spiritual awakenings in my own life. Dear reader, it is in simply being still where we can hear the call of the shepherd … but we must be willing to be silent and vulnerable.