I’ve hated this scripture for as long as I can remember. But when I finally dug deeper, I found something I didn’t expect — a story about being seen, carried, and celebrated.

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I have a confession: there’s a piece of scripture I’ve hated my whole life — the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15. Every time I heard it, something inside me bristled. Why does heaven throw a party for the one who wandered off while the faithful ninety-nine get no celebration?

In this episode of Unforeseen Journey, I unpack that tension. I dig into what this story meant to the people who first heard it, how it connects to our modern sense of community (or the lack of it), and why I think it still matters today.

I also share my own story — a season when I drifted from the places and people who once felt like home, and what it felt like when no one noticed. It’s a story about being lost, about noticing who’s missing, and about remembering that we’re all worth being found.

💡 What You’ll Hear

• The truth about what a shepherd’s search really meant in Jesus’ time
• How I learned this parable isn’t about punishment — it’s about belonging
• The moment I realized I’d been drifting too
• A simple action you can take today to reach out, reconnect, and be seen

🔥 This Week’s Spark

While you’re listening, open your phone and scroll your contacts.

Send one quick text that says: “I miss your laugh.”

Or, if you’re the one who’s been quiet, send a message that whispers: “I’m still here.”

One text. One spark. That’s all it takes to shift the story.

💛 Let’s Stay Connected

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend or tag me on social.

I’d love to hear your own “found” moments.

Join Our Email List: https://mailchi.mp/82ee3a777663/podcast-email

Instagram: @ourunforeseenjourney

Can I admit something like there's this scripture I have

hated my whole life and not just like a mild dislike, like, Hey, duh, it's

Luke 15 and it's the lost Sheep story, and every time I hear it, something

inside me just completely bristles like.

It's this whole idea of like, wait a minute, I've been faithful.

I've been steady, I've been showing up, and yet somehow I don't get the party.

Like, meanwhile, anybody who wanders off gets some massive celebration.

Excuse me, I'm one of the 99.

Why don't I get noticed too?

Hi, I'm Sarah Scott and welcome to Unforeseen Journey, where each week

we take a piece of scripture, even the ones we hate, and challenge what we

thought we knew and discover one way to live it out in our everyday lives.

So if you know Luke 15, then you know the story that comes alongside of this.

Um.

I'll read the scripture here really quick if you've never heard this

one before, just so you can kind of get a sense of where we're at.

So in Luke 15 chapter, I think it's, it's chapter 15, I think

it starts on verse three.

It says, then Jesus told them a parable.

Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and loses one of them.

Okay, so we're only losing one of a hundred things.

Doesn't he Leave the 99 in open country and go after the

lost sheep until he finds it?

Like, really, we're gonna leave the rest of the 99 just sitting around.

Out in the open country waiting to be snatched up by wolves.

I mean, come on.

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.

Then he calls his friends and together.

And in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one

sinner who repents than over the 99 righteous persons who do not repent.

Okay, now I get it.

I do.

I understand.

We want to go capture those who have been lost, but at the same time.

If you are not somebody who has ever felt like you've been lost entirely

in your faith, this one slaps a bit.

Okay?

I gotta admit it slaps a bit for me.

So when I sat in church recently, and I listened to this particular

scripture, I needed to sort of sit back a little bit and tell you to

myself, okay, let's challenge this.

I've hated the scripture for so long.

How do I challenge this?

How do I make it better?

How do I find meaning for me?

In this particular set.

So I did a bit of research to figure out what did the people

who were listening to the story originally know that I don't know.

So that was kind of my first question.

And so as I started digging a little bit into the culture and what was going

on in that particular time, there was this piece that comes up that, you

know, 100 sheep would not have been.

Something a single shepherd would've ever been watching over, it

would've been a team of shepherds.

So they never really would've ever been left alone, and people would've understood

that in this particular scenario.

And a hundred sheep was also communal property.

So like the whole village owned those 100 sheep.

And so it was really important to the community.

If one even went lost, it could mean a loss of livelihood, could mean a

loss of a number of different things.

So putting that into context and thinking about, okay.

Now as we look at this, like how does that really reflect in our today lives?

Because most often when we hear the scripture preached this, or the lost

coin that comes after it, um, into the prodigal sun, one of the things that

is preached often is, you know, you lose your phone, you lose your keys.

And to me, I'm like, yeah, okay.

I've lost my phone, I lost my keys.

I know that.

Panicky feeling of I've lost something, but it's not to the point where

I'm going to call my neighbors and rejoice because I found my keys.

I probably, half the time, don't even tell my family I've lost my keys.

So where is the comparison in our lives today that allow us

to really absorb this idea of.

You know, the whole community would've been rejoicing with us

when something lost was found.

And truly the only thing that could come to my mind at this point was

something so dramatic, but I'm hoping it resonates with you, is

think about if a child went missing.

If it was your child, how would you react if it was your child or a child

that you knew in the neighborhood?

But if one of my children went missing.

You know, I have three kids, so just because one went missing,

you know, it doesn't mean the other two aren't valuable.

They're just safe.

I know they're okay.

I know where they are.

I don't know what's happening to the one that's lost.

And we are gonna do everything we can to get back that lost child.

We are gonna call neighbors.

We're gonna be yelling up and down the street.

I can guarantee you that everybody in my little neighborhood is going

to know that that child is lost, and as many people as I can pull in are

going to be helping me look for them.

And.

Once that child is found, there really isn't going to be this sense of punishing

that child for whatever it was, right?

There's really gonna be this relief that kind of rushes over you and.

Then there's the celebration that comes afterwards that says, oh

my gosh, we found this child.

They're here.

We really need to love on them.

We need to make sure that they're safe and everybody is going to

celebrate in that homecoming.

And this is the piece that I really think that we want to lean

into when we look at this is.

Oh my gosh.

We really wanna be able to feel that.

It's not that the 99 weren't important, it's just that we

know the 99 are safe right now.

They're being protected, they're taken care of.

We know where they are, and we are desperately worried about the one that we

don't know whether or not they are safe.

Now granted, I'm gonna say that losing a child is very,

very, very, very rare, I hope.

You know, in our lives this doesn't happen, but you know,

it happens in a store once in a while, we've lost our kids, right?

They go missing you panic.

Everybody in the store knows you're looking for that kid, right?

But what about every, like, what about in our everyday lives?

How does this actually translate a little bit deeper into the

everyday lives that we live?

And I come back to a story that happened to me a few years ago.

I lost a very dear friend, a band mate who was somebody who always made me stronger

and made music fun and made it better.

And when he passed, I found I couldn't keep singing.

It just hurt so badly to have to try to get up on stage and in front

of a microphone without him there.

And once I stopped singing, I started noticing, I started drifting away

from a lot of other things in my life.

Um, I stepped away from church.

I stepped away from volunteering.

I stepped away from a lot of different things.

And what became really difficult about it was that nobody even noticed that I had.

All of these things.

I used to do all of these things I used to be a part of just solely

slipped away and nobody even noticed.

I would get phone calls from people in these places that would say to

me, Hey, could you help with this?

Hey, can you organize that?

But it was really like very task oriented.

It was really what can you do for us?

Can you do this thing for us?

How are you?

How can we help you?

And that's as somebody who feels lost, is so deeply painful that the only thing we

feel is what we do when we show up, right?

The things or the tasks or the activities that we do, it's

not just you that we miss.

It's not your mind, your conversations, your laughter, the sound of your voice,

and that's a deep kind of hurt that I think is something that we can look at and

spin to this, this particular scripture.

And I think this is where the heart of the scripture really comes from.

You know, when we look at shepherding and God is a shepherd, you know, he's really.

It's not that he's ignoring us if everything is good, it's

just that he knows we're safe.

And so he is going to be looking for the ones he feels

are not safe to make them safe.

And in the meantime, as you know, the hands of God in the world, we

can then make it our job to find those people that are lost, right?

The people within our communities, within our own lives who are.

Drifting a little bit.

We can help with that.

Bringing them back and helping to show people that they are

valued for who they are and their missing presence in our lives.

So what do we actually do with this, right?

So at the end of the day, one of the promises I make with this podcast

that I want us to be able to take scripture, see it in a new light,

and then do something with it.

So what do we do with this?

If you feel like you are one of the 99, you are safe and you

are steady and you're present.

I'm so grateful for you and I'm so glad that that's how you feel in this life.

But I want you to take a minute and look around.

Look around and see who's missing, who might have gone a little bit quiet.

And what I want you to do right now, 'cause I know you're listening

on your phone, go ahead and pick up your phone, go to your contacts

and start scrolling through.

Find someone you haven't heard from in a really long time and text them something

that just says, I miss your laugh.

That's it.

Simple, light, powerful.

No explanation.

I miss you.

Okay.

Now, if you are somebody who is feeling lost right now,

don't wait forever to be found.

I know what it feels like to be lost and unnoticed, and I know we really,

really want somebody to see us, and we really want someone to reach out to us.

But if we raid around forever, we will become very, very lost.

So if you or somebody who is in need of some attention, find somebody.

You open your phone too, scroll through, find the most comfortable

person you know on your list, and just write, Hey, I'm here in my family.

It looks like this.

It's a text to my sister that says, I love you.

Nothing else, no preamble.

And it's almost always a signal from us that says, I need

a little bit more support.

So find someone in your network.

Text them.

Let them know you're still there.

And if you're ready to talk, tell them you need to talk.

But don't let yourself wander lost.

None of us were ever made to disappear in this world, and that

was really the heart of the parable.

Not one single person in this world was ever meant to disappear.

You matter enough to be noticed.

You matter enough to be carried home and you matter enough to be celebrated.

This is Unforeseen journey and thanks for being here.

And remember that your faith was never meant to be contained.

See you next time.