Bible Parables S1E4 -- The Parable Of The Lost Sheep

This is a live session recording where we delve into the timeless wisdom of the Parable of the Lost Sheep and its practical application in our daily lives. This session is part of an ongoing series where we explore how biblical teachings can guide us in living fulfilling lives.
In this session we will explore the deeper meaning behind the parable and offer practical insights for bringing more compassion and connection into our daily lives.

This session includes a guided reflective meditation which will gently lead you through a journey of inner reflection and healing, helping you reconnect with your true self, release feelings of separation, and embrace the profound sense of being seen, loved, and fully accepted.

Come prepared to reflect on your own journey, engage with thought-provoking ideas, and leave inspired to create a life filled with purpose and abundance. This session is welcoming to all, regardless of religious background or familiarity with the Bible.

Transcript

The Parable of the Lost Sheep So He spoke this parable to them,

Saying,

What man of you,

Having a hundred sheep,

If he loses one of them,

Does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

And when he has found it,

He lays it on his shoulders,

Rejoicing.

And when he comes home,

He calls together his friends and neighbors,

Saying to them,

Rejoice with me,

For I have found my sheep which was lost.

I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

So as I said,

It's a very,

Very short parable,

But it does have a lot of meaning.

Looking at it from the surface,

The moral of the parable of the lost sheep is that everyone is important and loved,

No matter how small,

No matter how lost they may feel.

The parable teaches that love and care are for everyone,

Especially those who may feel left out or lost.

And just as the shepherd went looking for his lost sheep,

We should also care for people who need help or feel alone.

Another thing that comes up is no one is forgotten.

Even when we make mistakes or we wander off,

There's always a way back.

And there's always someone who cares for you.

And finally,

Kindness and compassion should be shown to everyone,

No matter how many others there are.

Just like the shepherd celebrated when he found the lost sheep,

We too should be happy when people feel loved and included again.

So how do I implement this in my daily life?

If you see someone sitting alone,

A classmate or a colleague or a friend,

You can be like the shepherd.

You can invite them to play or you can invite them to talk or you can just go and have a general chat with them because everyone deserves to feel included.

At home,

If a friend or family member is upset or struggling with something,

Don't ignore them.

Check on them.

Let them know that they are loved,

That they are important in the same way as the shepherd cared for his lost sheep.

And in your community,

If someone is going through a hard time,

Like feeling lonely or making mistakes,

Keep in mind that everyone can find their way back with love and support.

We too should be happy when people feel better and come back to a good place.

So the teaching can be said about being kind and compassionate to others even when they feel lost because everyone matters.

Now let's go into this parable line by line and see what wisdom we can find from it.

The parable starts with So he spoke this parable to them saying And Jesus begins with a parable And a parable is essentially a story that carries divine wisdom beneath its simplicity.

In our daily lives,

We should recognize that the universe often speaks to us in symbols and subtle signs.

Not all wisdom comes in direct obvious ways.

Be open to the subtle messages that life brings.

Be open to the parables that you see around you as you go through your day,

As you move through your daily interactions.

What man of you,

Having a hundred sheep,

If he loses one of them,

Does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

And here the shepherd's flock symbolizes your wholeness,

Your soul,

Your thoughts,

Your inner peace.

The one lost sheep can be said to be a part of yourself,

A neglected aspect,

Perhaps your inner child,

Your forgotten dreams or your spiritual needs.

Because sometimes amid the busyness of life,

We lose touch with parts of ourselves.

The ninety-nine can represent the routines and the comforts that we maintain,

While the lost sheep is that part of the soul that craves deeper connection or healing.

And the spiritual call here,

The spiritual call is to leave the comfort zone of routine and turn your attention to the part of yourself that feels lost or neglected.

Is there any part of you that feels out of alignment with your truth?

What part of you needs more love,

Attention or healing?

Maybe it's a relationship.

Maybe it's your self-care.

Maybe it's more leisure time that you need to give to yourself.

Or maybe it's your job or your work commitments.

What part of you needs more love,

Attention and healing?

And when he has found it,

He lays it on his shoulders rejoicing.

And when you find that lost part of yourself,

Whether it's your forgotten passion,

Whether it's a neglected relationship,

Whether it's a spiritual longing,

Embrace it fully.

This is not a burden,

But it's a blessing.

The shepherd carries the sheep with joy,

Symbolizing the act of self-reclamation.

Self-forgiveness.

Self-love.

In your daily life,

When you recognize a part of yourself that needs attention or healing,

Try not to push it away.

Try not to feel burdened by it.

Instead,

Try to carry it lovingly.

Try to integrate it back into your being.

Because there's this joy in healing and wholeness.

And when he comes home,

He calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them,

Rejoice with me,

For I have found my sheep which was lost.

And this line teaches us that spiritual growth and personal healing are not solitary processes.

When you discover a lost part of yourself,

Share your joy and insights with those around you.

Because there may be so many others on the same journey as you,

And the insights that you bring,

The joy that you share,

Will touch their lives.

So life is meant to be in connection with others.

In your daily practice,

Celebrate your victories.

Sometimes we have these small victories that we feel are not deserving of celebration.

But celebrate those victories,

No matter how small.

And also share your joys with those close to you so that they can support you and celebrate your progress.

Healing is a collective journey.

And joy is magnified when it is shared.

I say to you that likewise,

There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance.

And this verse reveals a very profound truth.

The universe rejoices in every act of self-awareness,

Growth and transformation.

The sinner who repents is the part of you that was lost but is now returning to your true path.

And this teaches us that growth doesn't come from perfection.

It comes from recognizing that we have wandered off course and we are returning back with intention.

In our daily life,

Don't strive for constant perfection.

Instead,

Be gentle with yourself.

When you feel lost or when you make a mistake,

You can use it as a point of transformation.

This act of realigning with your deeper truth,

Of coming back to yourself,

This is where your divine joy and your spiritual power reside.

So some practical takeaways from the parable.

Firstly,

Stay aware.

In your daily life,

Stay open to the parts of yourself that feel neglected or out of balance.

It may be a spiritual practice that you've let go of.

It may be a relationship that needs nurturing.

Or it may be a passion that you haven't followed.

So in your day-to-day living,

Try to notice what feels lost.

Try to notice what makes you feel lost.

Another takeaway,

Reclaim with love.

When you find what's been missing,

Don't be harsh on yourself for letting it go.

Instead,

Embrace it lovingly.

Because each part of your journey is sacred.

And then share with growth.

As you evolve,

Let others into your journey.

Share your insights and let people support you.

And also you support people.

Because healing becomes very,

Very powerful when it is shared in a community.

And finally,

Celebrate the progress.

Celebrate not only the outcome,

But celebrate the entire process of finding healing.

Every time you return to your true self,

Know that the universe celebrates with you.

So this parable of the lost sheep,

It reminds us that no part of ourselves,

No matter how far gone,

Is beyond redemption or healing.

Every step back towards wholeness is a cause for joy.

So we are encouraged to live with a heart that's ready to seek,

That's ready to embrace.

And we are also encouraged to celebrate the lost parts of ourselves as we start to rediscover them.

So we will always be in that process of finding our lost sheep,

Bringing our lost sheep back to the flock,

And celebrating with the community.

This will be a continuous ongoing process.

A lost sheep could be a limiting belief.

A lost sheep could be a fear of something.

A lost sheep could be a passion that you're looking to pursue.

So we will always be in the process of finding our lost sheep and bringing it back to our flock.

We will go now into a guided reflective meditation based on this parable.

So if you're sitting,

Make yourself that little bit more comfortable.

If you're sleeping,

Let yourself relax,

Let yourself sink into your bed.

And if it is safe to do so,

You can close your eyes and take a deep breath in.

And gently exhale.

With each breath,

Feel your body relax a little more.

Let go of any tension in your shoulders,

Your neck,

Your back.

With each inhale,

Feel a sense of peace entering your body.

And with each exhale,

Release any stress or distraction.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

As you continue to breathe deeply,

Let yourself come into the present moment.

Feel the weight of your body being supported by the earth beneath you.

In this moment,

You are safe.

You are whole.

And you are present.

Now gently turn your attention inward to the space of your heart.

And imagine yourself standing in an open field.

The sky above stretching out endlessly.

Around you is a vast landscape,

Rolling hills and valleys,

The earth warm beneath your feet.

You are the shepherd in the story,

Surrounded by your flock of sheep.

And each sheep represents a part of your life,

A part of yourself,

Your thoughts,

Your dreams,

Your relationships,

Your passions.

Take a moment to look at this flock.

See how each sheep symbolizes something important to you,

A piece of your personal landscape.

Some of these parts feel strong and vibrant.

But as you walk among them,

You notice one is missing.

A part of you has wandered off.

Let yourself feel the absence of this lost sheep.

What does it represent for you?

Is it a forgotten dream?

An unhealed wound?

Or a neglected relationship?

Is it your connection to your deeper self?

Your sense of purpose?

Or perhaps even your spiritual practice?

Take a moment to reflect.

What part of you feels distant or lost right now?

What part of your life have you been in?

What part of your life have you been neglecting,

Pushing aside,

Or simply ignoring?

Hold that awareness in your heart,

Without judgment,

Only with love and curiosity.

Now as the shepherd,

You make a choice.

You leave behind the comfort of the flock,

The routines,

The familiar,

The safe,

And set out to find the one lost sheep.

Begin your journey now.

Picture yourself walking through this vast landscape,

Calling out,

Seeking.

Feel your willingness to seek out this missing part of yourself,

Not as a burden,

But as an act of love.

Each step you take is an expression of your desire to be whole,

To heal,

To reconnect.

You walk through valleys,

Across hills,

Always with faith that you will find what is lost.

You will find what is lost.

The path may be unclear,

But your heart guides you.

You trust the process.

You trust the journey.

And then,

After a time,

You see it.

The lost sheep is there,

Nestled in a quiet corner,

Waiting to be found.

As you approach it,

Feel the relief,

Feel the joy.

You have found what was lost.

Bend down and gently gather the sheep in your arms.

What do you feel in this moment?

Relief?

Compassion?

Love?

This sheep,

This lost part of yourself is not a burden.

It is something precious.

You carry it on your shoulders,

Feeling its weight.

But this weight is light with joy,

Light with the recognition that what was once lost has now been found.

As you walk back toward the flock,

Reflect.

What is this lost sheep?

What part of yourself have you reclaimed in this meditation?

Is it a sense of peace?

A forgotten joy?

A connection to your higher self?

Embrace it fully,

Embrace it fully,

Feeling it reintegrate with the rest of your being.

As you return to your flock,

To the whole of who you are,

You are greeted with joy.

The heavens,

The universe,

The world around you rejoices in your healing,

Rejoices in your wholeness.

Every step back to yourself is sacred.

Every act of self-compassion is victory.

Take a moment now to invite a sense of deep celebration.

Feel the energy of joy radiating from your heart outward.

Filling your entire being and extending to the world around you.

You are whole,

And in this wholeness you are connected to all that is.

In this moment,

Reflect on the process of finding what was lost.

Know that in your life there will be times when parts of you feel distant and disconnected,

But you always have the ability to seek,

To find,

And to return to yourself with love and compassion.

Take a deep breath in,

And exhale fully.

Let that sense of wholeness settle into your being.

Know that the universe celebrates your journey not for perfection,

But for the beautiful process of being more aligned with your true self.

And when you are ready,

Slowly bring your awareness to the present moment.

Wiggle your fingers,

Move your toes,

Feel the surface beneath you,

And when it feels right,

Gently open your eyes carrying with you the joy and peace of your journey.

An affirmation.

I honour the parts of myself that I have neglected.

I seek them out with love.

I reclaim them with joy.

And I celebrate my wholeness.

Breathe in,

And out,

And know that you are always being guided back to your true self.

So the parable of the lost sheep.

How else can we interpret this parable?

From a new age perspective,

The shepherd could represent your higher self,

Your true divine self,

Could also represent your imagination,

Which is the creation of the universe.

Your imagination,

Which is the creative force within you.

The shepherd could be that higher part of your consciousness that seeks to align with your desires and intentions.

And leaving the 99 sheep symbolises the act of turning away from distractions and habitual thoughts,

Focusing on that one,

That one that truly matters.

The lost sheep could be interpreted as a misaligned desire or the state of consciousness.

A state of consciousness that has wandered away from its divine power could be an unrealised desire or a forgotten dream.

It could also represent a state where you have lost faith in your power to create reality.

So leaving the 99 is focusing on the one desire.

Identify your lost sheep.

Identify your desire.

Ask yourself what part of your life feels unfulfilled or out of alignment.

This is your lost sheep.

The desire that you have forgotten or neglected.

And this could be something as simple as peace or love or success or maybe something even more specific.

And then turn away from the distractions.

Turn away from those multiple thoughts.

Turn away from those routines.

Turn away from those fears.

And focus entirely on that one desire you want to reclaim.

Leave behind the distractions and doubts that make you feel disconnected from your power.

And then go and reclaim that lost sheep.

Go and do what needs to be done.

What steps need to be taken for you to fulfil that desire,

For you to find that lost sheep.

And once you've done that,

Celebrate your victory.

Even if it's a small step that you have taken,

Celebrate it.

The celebration will encourage you to keep moving forward.

Another interpretation.

The shepherd is your conscious awareness.

The shepherd is your conscious mind.

The guiding part of you that directs your attention,

That directs your focus.

When the shepherd seeks to bestow order to the flock,

It could symbolise the various thoughts,

Beliefs and desires residing within your mind.

So in your daily life,

It means that you as the conscious mind have the power to notice when a part of your mind,

Your beliefs,

Your desires,

Your intentions have wandered away from the harmonious whole.

And the act of the shepherd,

Which is your conscious self going after the lost sheep,

Could be seen as a metaphor for focusing attention on aligning your subconscious beliefs with your desires.

The lost sheep could symbolise a negative belief,

Could symbolise fear.

It could also symbolise a limiting thought pattern.

And when you feel disconnected,

When you feel fearful,

When you feel lacking,

It's as if a part of your inner world,

Your flock of beliefs,

Has gone astray.

The lost sheep,

Which could represent doubt,

Fear or limitation that is preventing you from realising your true potential.

In practical terms,

This might manifest as a belief that you are unworthy of success or you are unworthy of love or you are unworthy of health.

A belief that has wandered away from your inherent spiritual nature,

Which is essentially rooted in abundance and wholeness.

So when we entertain these negative beliefs,

They take on a life of their own in our subconscious and they influence how we experience the world outside of us.

So the act of seeking,

The act of finding the lost sheep can be interpreted as reprogramming the subconscious.

Leaving the 99 sheep to search for the lost sheep can be seen as the conscious effort to bring the subconscious mind back into alignment with positive beliefs,

With constructive beliefs,

With beliefs that help you to realise your full potential.

So focusing your attention on what you desire and rejecting any negative beliefs,

Rejecting any limiting beliefs.

And what is rejoicing?

Rejoicing is that realisation of truth,

The moment of realisation when we have overcome our limiting beliefs or we have moved towards our desires or we are living our life to our fullest potential.

And the other 99 sheep,

The remaining positive and constructive beliefs which are already in harmony with our desires and spiritual truths.

It takes only one limiting belief to create discord in our life,

Right?

Because as human beings,

We are by default negatively biased.

We are able to pick out,

Focus and hold on to the negatives while ignoring all the positives.

You can think of it as you're having a good day,

A very good day.

So throughout the day,

There are very,

Very good incidences and interactions and lovely things are happening to you.

But all it takes is one incident,

One negative incident at the end of the day and then we latch on to that negative incident.

We latch on to that negativity around the incident and we very happily classify the whole day as being a bad day because this one negative or bad thing happened.

So it takes just one limiting belief to create discord in our lives.

So practical applications.

Identify your lost sheep.

Identify your negative beliefs.

Be honest.

Identify the fears.

Identify the doubts.

Identify the negative thought patterns that need to be addressed.

How can I identify them?

I can identify them by observing the way I talk to myself.

And then seek and correct.

How do I correct them?

Affirmations.

When I find that I'm subscribing to a negative belief,

I create an opposite affirmation that changes the belief that I start subscribing to.

So affirmations are very powerful.

Replacing negative beliefs with positive,

Constructive affirmations.

I am worthy of success.

I am divinely guided in all that I do.

Another effective way is visualization.

Start imagining yourself as already having achieved your goal,

As already living your life to your fullest potential,

As already having achieved what you want to achieve.

And visualize it with emotion.

And then faith.

Cultivate that feeling of faith.

Cultivate that feeling of expectancy.

Trusting that you are aligned.

Trusting that the universe is always looking out for your higher good.

The first step,

The starting point would be awareness.

So knowing that I'm being affected by this negative event.

So it's more of being plugged in all the time as an observer to see what's actually happening in your mind.

Monitoring your self-talk as a witness.

Monitoring your self-talk as a witness.

So knowing that at the moment I'm feeling down,

I'm feeling negative,

I'm feeling sad,

I'm feeling angry,

I'm feeling disturbed.

That in itself should be a trigger.

Okay,

Something is off.

I need to shift my energy.

I need to vibrate on a higher frequency.

So it's about awareness.

Knowing that we are negatively biased.

And then when we find ourselves in that negative state of mind,

Do what needs to be done to move out of that negative state.

It's very easy for us to move out of that state once we realize that it's not really happening in the world outside.

All the drama,

All the action is happening in our mind.

Like a movie.

Yes,

It is exactly like a movie.

And it's a movie where we are the producer,

We are the director,

We are the actor,

We are the cameraman,

We are handling lights,

We are handling sound.

Everything is controlled by us.

It is like a movie.

And we are writing the script.

And the beautiful thing is that we can change the script anytime we want.

We are in control of the script.

We control the narrative.

And we should stop believing that someone else is writing the scripts for us.

So you can rewrite your script at any point in time.

You find yourself sitting down feeling angry,

Feeling sad,

Feeling lonely.

Tear up the script and write a new one.

It all starts with awareness because we really cannot change what we are not aware of.

And there are many many people who are still unaware that they actually have a choice.

That they can choose not to be affected by what is happening around them.

Because we have been programmed and we have been conditioned to react in certain ways to different people,

Places and things.

That at some point we forget that we actually have a choice in how we choose to react.

And no person,

Place or thing has any power over how I feel in my mind.

Only I control what happens here.

So identify a lost sheep.

Seek and correct.

Celebrate your inner victory.

Feel gratitude.

Gratitude is a very beautiful way to move out of any negative frame of mind we are in.

And sometimes we complain what is there to be so grateful about.

And there is everything to be grateful about.

I can simply be grateful for the air around me that is in so much abundance that I have free access to.

I can be grateful that I have a roof over my head.

I can be grateful that I can walk around comfortably.

There are so many things I can be grateful for.

So celebrate your inner victory.

Feel gratitude.

Feel joy.

And finally maintain that alignment.

Keep taking care of the flock.

Because there will always be this one sheep that goes this way and there will be another sheep that goes that way.

So you need to keep maintaining the flock and this is a lifelong journey.

Maintaining the flock is a lifelong journey.

Self-development is a lifelong journey.

And the beautiful thing is that all of you who are in this session today are already on that journey.

That's all that I have on this parable.

It's a very short and a very small parable but there is so much wisdom that can be extracted from it.

Thank you everyone.

Love,

Light,

Blessings.

Namaste.