As I’ve said before, I want my life to have an eternal impact (Becoming Nothing).  It’s a temptation for me to measure that by the numbers.  (The first time I spoke at a women’s retreat, the drop in expected to actual attendance from 21 to 19 threatened my sense of purpose!)  I’ve hoped to share what God has taught me in front of large groups people or that my blog would be widely read.  But now, I’ve been feeling like God has called me away from the “ninety-nine” to the “one.”  I’ve been relating to Jesus’ parable about that in a new way.

It’s easy to see the value of ministry to the ninety-nine.  It’s a quieter work to spend time with one person.  But as God has moved me into a place where I focus on mentoring one-on-one and the ministry of just being present, I have started to learn the value of the “one,” and in that, I think, to grow closer to Jesus’ heart.

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?  And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.  In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.  Matthew 18:12-14