The Pursuit - What The 99 Stands For

This is the biggest lesson learned from the climb up Grays Peak.

My last blog was about the story of climbing Grays and I left a little piece out… That’s what this blog is about.

Sometimes I lack the words necessary to fully express what The 99 means to me and what I actually believe the purpose was that God had for me when He put it on my heart to create it. It finally clicked with me as I was ascending Grays Peak.

The 99 is built on this radical idea that the Shepherd leaves the 99 to pursue the lost one. Ultimately, pointing to Jesus and what He did for us (Luke 15:4). However, it doesn’t stop there. Jesus then invites us into that call through Matthew 4:19 – saying, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus then calls us, “to go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Meaning, we are now responsible for carrying that call of leaving the 99 to pursue the one.

This is what clicked with me… Pursuing the one is not comfortable. Pursuing the ones that are lost, broken and forgotten is hard. The kind of hard where the trail keeps switching back and the summit never looks any closer. Pursuing the ones that are actively running away is hard, like hitting a bunch of false peaks and seeing the mountain towering above you. There will be times you feel like giving up, times you feel like it all doesn’t matter, times you think you’re completely unqualified, like looking up from the trailhead and seeing something that seems so far out of reach.

Leaving the 99 and pursuing the one means there will be struggle, heartache, restlessness, brokenness, but once you hit that summit – once you hit the high of introducing Jesus to someone that needed Him, praying for someone who just wants to be seen, buying a meal for someone that doesn’t know where the next one is coming from… that’s what makes it worth it and that’s why we do what we do.

Join The 99 in the mission Jesus called us into. The uncomfortable. The adventure. The relentless pursuit of all those that are lost, broken and forgotten. No matter how far we have to go or how long it takes…

To the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)