Yesterday, Good Friday, on our annual trek around town carrying a big cross between churches, a pastor speaker challenged us to think about whom we were walking for. We were surely walking in witness of our trek, remembering the way of Jesus, but were we able to walk “in spirit” for the marginalized, wrongly accused, and ignored people. I do pray justice in mercy for downtrodden folks  This walk specifically however I thought to myself that as I was walking enjoying the comradery of Christ-followers that perhaps it was best that I frame my mind in prayer for others without this knowledge… I decided I would walk for the LOST.

LOST. Pray one day that they will find that they were found. 

I myself being awake and aware now 10 years, I best find myself to pray mercy of those asleep in faith like I was. I pray for the prideful and even angry, those bothered and bitter, the ignorant and arrogant, the LOST. I pray for their Easter to come, to see the light, to rise from their earthly graves.

What does it mean to be lost? Spiritually lost? I didn’t understand until I was found. There surely are millions of skeptical cynics out there, not just bliss ignorance but vengeful dark mud-stuck lost. May we see one day they prayerfully become sincere seekers. As I am THANKFUL to be found, I cry tears of salvation in JOY, so let me spare a Jesus Tear for these lost. 

In the Revolutionary War cemetery on our trek, one of our stops, I learned they found very little of the 248 yr old remnants during excavation performed just 30 years ago. They weren’t moving dissolved caskets, just cataloging what was lost now “found”. The land was swamp marsh and “to dust” (mush, mud, dust) so these soldiers returned, lost in flesh but not in memory. The cemetery was unmarked and long lost. Thankfully they had records of written stories of the burials, then they decided to look hard during the whole area’s excavation for development. They found shifted soil with detectors, some artifacts, and structural 4-deep placement. They had known the recruited hospital was nearby, not far from the battlefield but also entrenched in fever episodes of the day. The clues were ready to be picked up. Bur the soldiers had already moved on. The cemetery found but the soldiers gone. We pray them found.

How can we walk for the lost? By leaving trails, traits, teachings behind. By shining the light forward. By great commission continuation. By shifting the soil under others from dry or rocky or thorny into good. Shifted soil makes for a shifted soul and then joyful memories. Pray for the lost and pick up a cross with a shovel attachment and look to find those who need a little shifting. 

We pray to keep walking and keep walking to keep praying. 

Amen