Lost and Found

I've been thinking lately about the states of being lost and found. It occurred to me that the Lord's work is one of finding His sheep. He has said that His sheep hear His voice. When one is lost they may not recognize that they are in that state. When we go forward in the Lord's work, we need to find the lost -- does that mean that we some times need to help people recognize how they are lost? I'm not sure I understand the answer to this question, but I do know that there are definitive feelings that accompany being lost and being found. Sometimes people can feel lost even when they are in the company of others, have all the necessities and comforts of life and appear to be in a stable situation. On the other hand, there are also times when people can experience the feelings of being found even when in the most austere, desolate circumstances -- alone, without common comforts, lacking food and water and generally at the utter extremities of the boundary between life and death. We are familiar with the phrase "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me" and I apply this to my role as a servant of the Lord. In examining and seeking to understand my feelings and thoughts and subsequent behaviors I can begin to better understand how to experience more often the feelings of being found and help others be found. When we are found we feel confident in our daily decisions, we feel safe and secure in the present and future, we feel comfortable with the present circumstances no matter what they are, we recognize the Lord's hand in our lives, we feel confident in speaking with God and hearing His voice in our hearts and minds. Simply put, when we are lost we experience the opposites of these feelings. I was just listening to a podcast wherein a man and woman share their experience of losing their sister in a car accident. It was a devestating loss to each of them, the man was only 14 at the time and he spoke of feeling like he needed to be around his family -- people whom he knew loved and cared for him. It sounded to me like he was describing the need to feel found and not lost in his extreme circumstance. He was found and continues to be carried in the arms of that love as evidenced by his continued testimony of the truth and power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.