We talk a lot in the church about saving the lost, seeking out what has been lost, we even celebrate the prodigal son and his return. All of which are needed and necessary but there is one other group the Lord is going after and we will add to our pursuit of in this coming year and that is those who have been cast away.

The cast aways are not always talked about or even remembered, but there they are cast out into depression, isolation, loneliness due to reasons most of us have no understanding of. Going after a cast away is a task not for the faint of heart, for they have been cast away so are not easily brought back into fellowship.

The pain of being cast away is a pain that is hard to describe but is of the likes of abandonment. The cast away learns self-preservation to the point of looking like they have not been cast off in order to survive alone in the world while others are celebrating connection.

Ecclessiastes 3 speaks of the cast away saying, “God seeks what has been driven away.” Reading this today, the Holy Spirit said, I am sending people to pursue those who have been cast away, driven away. God is seeking out and sending people to pursue those who have been cast away.

The challenge for the one who has been cast away is that God is using people to come find you and to bring you back, but it is people who have cast you away, driven you away. Isolation has not been helpful to you, but the sight of someone coming for you is not desired either, for the ones who hurt you were people too.

To the cast aways, to the ones who have been driven away, God is sending people to come for you, do not push them away. They are coming to bring you back with them to do life again. You were never meant to do life alone, forgive those who drove you away, because there are coming for you those who won’t cast you away, drive you away or send you away, they are coming to knit you in with them and others. God is coming for those who have been driven away.