Episode 24: What If You're Not as Far Gone as You Think?

Have you ever felt like you've wandered too far, made too many mistakes, or become someone you never intended to be?

Whether you're carrying regret, struggling with shame, feeling disconnected from God, or watching someone you love walk a difficult path, this episode is a powerful reminder that no one is beyond grace.

In this episode of The Navigating Leaders Podcast, Gabriel Griess shares a personal story, explores the timeless lessons of the Prodigal Son and the Lost Sheep, and challenges us to rethink how we view ourselves and others. Along the way, he unpacks why kindness, compassion, forgiveness, faith, and human connection matter more than ever in a world filled with division, anxiety, judgment, and loneliness.

If you've been searching for hope, purpose, healing, redemption, or simply a reminder that you're not alone, this conversation may be exactly what you need.

The question isn't whether you've ever been lost. The question is what happens when you're found.

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CONNECT WITH GABRIEL

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ABOUT GABRIEL

Gabriel Griess is a retired US Air Force officer, the CEO of Excel Medical Staffing and MedForceX, and the founder of Navigating Leaders. A graduate of the elite Air Force Weapons School, he has spent decades leading teams in high-pressure environments and equipping others to reach their full potential. As a combat veteran and an entrepreneur, Gabriel helps individuals cultivate self-awareness, resilience, and the ability to create lasting impact.

An internationally sought-after keynote speaker, he addresses audiences on personal transformation, strategic leadership, and veteran empowerment. The Results Tree is the framework he lives by, and when applied, it will unearth your destiny.

Transcript

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Can we all be kind and gracious? Can we all be kind and gracious? We'll dig into that. My name is Gabriel Brees, the founder of Madame Langers, and the host of the podcast. Are we awake in your vision? Welcome. So this one's been on my heart for a little while, and I am absolutely not an expert in the space. So I ask for your grace and your kindness and your forgiveness at the beginning. But I want to I want to have a conversation here and share some thoughts. I'll share a story about my youth and uh and then a couple of stories out of the Bible, and then kind of have a conversation surrounding what it is to live in this world and to be fallen, to be broken, to be a sinner. And really the variable is whether or not I've been saved and accepted Christ, or maybe I'm still in the wilderness wandering, uh looking for that salvation or hoping that it finds me. And so I tell you a story. I'm in uh in Iowa, uh, on the east coast along the uh along the river there. I think it's the Mississippi River that runs on the east coast of uh or eastern border, not really coast, I guess, uh, of Iowa. And uh we're on a family vacation, and it's in the springtime, so lots of rains happened all over the Great Plains, and so the river's rushing, it's running high, uh, to the point you can actually see tree, you know, tree trunks and and random bits of debris going by the river. And uh, and the water is is all the way up uh to the edge of the city park. And and I'm probably I don't know, six years old, maybe seven, but probably six. And we we step into a diner. So if I'm six, it's it's circa 1979, 1980. So there I'm dating myself. Uh and uh and we're in a diner having breakfast, and and I'm a fidgety little boy and and and I'm bored, and I'm you know, mom and dad are having coffee, and maybe they're watching the news or whatever. And and I finish my breakfast and I I sneak over to them and and I basically tap dad or tap mom and I said, Hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna go find a video game. And and I leave and I walk out of this diner and uh and I go down a few stores and maybe ask a few questions and and uh and I find that in the back of this one store they had a they had a pinball machine or something that that I was that I'd gone and you know, I had a few few quarters in my pocket because it was family vacation time, and and so I was playing playing uh playing pinball. And uh who knows how long it was before my parents realized that their son is nowhere to be found in a town they're unfamiliar with, uh right along a river that's rushing uh and and going right by a little playground in and uh City Park. And and so I'm having a great time in this back room playing a game, and my parents panic and they begin wandering the streets, going to the going to the park, going door to door. And uh, as it's been shared with me, they are nearly ready to call the police. And uh somehow, by the grace of God, they find their way into this this little mini mark or whatever, and and find me playing ping pong, not ping pong, but pinball. And to see the terror in their eyes, but also the love and the elation and the joy when they find me and that all 10 fingers and 10 toes and everything else is is still attached and functioning. And so my parents found me and I was safe. And uh, and that leads me to a couple of parables I want to read. I'm actually reading them out of out of Luke 15, and and I want to set up the context a little bit. Both of them are around uh things that are lost. One is a lost sheep, and one is a lost son. And in the end, you're gonna see uh the father, right, rejoices in finding both of these things, the son and the sheep. And um, in more than that, I want us to think about the walk each of us is doing in our communities, right? What it is to either be a Christian and be saved or somebody who who hasn't found found the faith or hasn't found salvation, and um, and that all of us at one point were lost. Right? All of us were lost. And so we get to have grace for our fellow journey, journeymen and women on this, on this. So let me read this and then we'll we'll see where it goes. Bear with me. It's gonna take a couple minutes uh because we have we have some length. But coming from Luke 15, the parable of lost sheep. Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near him to hear him, and the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. 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 that is lost until he finds it? And when he is found it, 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, likewise, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons, or righteous persons, potentially, who need no repentance. I'll read the middle one because it's short. The parable of lost coin. Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, search with carefully under it until she finds it. And when she has found it, calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I lost. Likewise I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one center, sinner who repents. So again, what was lost is now found, and there's rejoicing. And then the parable of the lost son. This one resonates a lot with me. If you've read the results tree or listened to any of our other podcasts, um, I've had a colorful journey and certainly was a was a was a prodigal or lost son at one point in my life, as many, many of us have been, or daughters, right? So the parable of the lost son, beginning at verse 11, then he said, A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of the goods that falls to me, basically, give me my inheritance. So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, he got a job, and he sent him into the fields to feed the swine, and he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, so the lost son, the prodigal son, has a revelation. He wakes up, he's like, Hey, this isn't working out for me. He said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare? I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against you in heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. So here's a son coming home saying, Hey, Dad, I'm not even gonna call you dad, I'm not worthy of being your son. Can I just have a job? Can I just eat the scraps from your table, basically? And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring out the best robe. Right? So he's going to clothe his son, who's obviously been tending swine, so you can only imagine what he smelled like, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, so jewelry, gold, right? Signet, signifying this connection to his father. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again, and he was lost and is found, and they began to be merry. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked these what what things what these things meant. And he said to him, Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf. But he was angry. Now, this is the brother who stayed, right? So one brother went off and blew his inheritance, and the other brother stayed and was dutiful and uh and followed all the rules and did everything right, right? So this brother who stayed, right, but he was angry and would not go in. So he wouldn't go into the celebration for his brother who just showed up. Therefore his father came out, right? So his father just got one brother back, and that, or one son back, and now he's out pleading, pleading with his other son. So he answered him and said to his father, Lo, these many years I've been serving you. I never transgressed your commandments at any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. Right? This guy's deep in his victim conversation. But as soon as the son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him. And he said to him, Son, you were always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is live again, was lost and is found. And so when we started this conversation, I was sharing with you uh how I was lost and found by my parents, right? When I was playing that pinball game. And uh there's a couple of things I want to tease out in here and talk about. And the first around the prodigal son part is that when the youngest son uh asked for his inheritance, right? The father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So the portion of my inheritance should should come to me as your son. So he divided it to them. So in order, you got to think about how wealth was in this time, right? It was it was land and it was flocks and it could have been equipment or building, like it wasn't, it wasn't as liquid or fungibles as wealth is today, right? So for him to give a portion to his youngest son, he had to create some liquidity. He had to create an ability to to portion off some of it, right? And he had two sons. And the way, as I understand it, again, so I'm not I'm not fully vested in this knowledge, but as I understand it, as the eldest son, he would have gotten a double portion, he would have gotten more. So of the father's inheritance, it would have been divided into thirds. The youngest son would have gotten one third, and the eldest son would have gotten two-thirds, right? And when we get to the end, in uh in verse 1531, and it said, and he said to him, Son, speaking to the eldest son that stayed, the righteous son, you were always with me, and all that I have is yours, right? So it was true. Now, the the eldest son may have may have lived and worked in reverence with his father, right, because he had divided, he had divided his his wealth, but at the same time, the youngest son got his inheritance, the eldest son did too. And so for him to say, Hey, you didn't give me a lamb or a goat to celebrate with my friends, and now you kill the fatted calf or this, you know, your son who ran off, um it's just a it's a blindness, it's a righteousness by that, by that eldest son, right? Not condoning what the what the prodigal son did at all, but at least he repented, right? He went off, lived out of alignment, realized it wasn't working, decided something needed to be different, um and and came to himself and said, Hey, I gotta, I gotta make right. I need to go home. I need to fix this. Um, and in the first story, right, again, the righteous of the 99, represented by the 99 sheep and the one lost sheep. So, what does this all mean? Okay, and here's where it's gonna get a little squirrely because I can't tell you that I know exactly where it's gonna go, but I'm gonna tell you what's on my heart. So please indulge me uh and uh and and let's see where this goes, is um the other day in our in our in our church, uh uh Pastor Daniel, uh I go to Gateway here in here in South Lake, Texas, and he basically says, our job as Christians is to invite, right? I it's not my responsibility to to convert people or to you know drag them kicking and screaming into salvation. It's it's my job is to invite. And that's a little bit what this conversation is, but it's it's also an attempt for a truce or neutral ground, right? Um because uh it's scary to invite, it's scary to be vulnerable, it's scary to uh share faith, it's scary. I'm speaking myself, I guess. Um, it's scary to be like, well, what are people gonna think of me? Uh am I intruding? Am I am I am I stepping out? Am I gonna step on toes? Am I gonna offend somebody? Right? All these things, right? And so uh if you're a believer, uh you get to invite. Um you can ask permission, right? You can say, hey, can I can I share something with you? A little bit like what I've done here at the start of this conversation was can I share something with you? Um and you can ask, hey, do you have a relationship with Christ? Would you like to know about it? Right? And and here's what he's done in my life. Uh here's where I was a prodigal and where I was lost, and and now I'm found, and here's here are the changes that I've experienced. Um, and as I was talking uh with some friends before this, uh we talked about the peace, right? The peace that comes from that relationship is is so amazing, right? And the ability to lay down anxiety, right? Our our humans, our human psyche, the way we are, uh we are gifted in the our ability to think and to move into the future, but we don't live in the future, right? We've talked about that here before. We live in this present moment right here, right now, and this is the only time and place we have anything we can do. And so um, so we get to be present and we get to be um inviting folks here and now and not concerned about the tomorrow, right? So we get to go after the one that's in the wilderness. And this is and this is uh maybe gonna wake some believers up, some Christians up, and that is I really think we're all the one, right? Because we're lost and then found, or for those that aren't found yet are still lost, um, but sitting in that seat of righteousness of the 99, that isn't salvation, right? There's no there's no way home from there, right? That's that's living according to law and works and deeds and performative, right? And and um my best day is nothing in light of uh of who Christ is and who the salvation piece is, right? And so we all get to be the center and repent. And whether we've then repented and accepted Christ or we're still living in a sinful state, we're we're still lost. And so it's this commonality of lost, right? Um, that I want us to to hold on to and to give each other grace around, right? Life is hard, it is challenging. Uh, and in those challenges we grow, but it doesn't make it any less hard. And if I'm trying to burden all of the things in life as a father, right, or as a business owner, um, or in the case of my wife as a mother, right, and a homemaker or former, former executive, right? If we're trying to bear those burdens on our own, uh, how overwhelming. And even with salvation and the ability to lay those things down at the foot of the cross and the ability to put down our yoke and pick up his yoke because his yoke, his yoke is light and his bur his burden is easy, right? Um life is still challenging. It's still hard. We're still under attack. And so my invitation to all of us, right? Everybody listening here, whether whether saved or unsaved, is can we just be kind? Can we be gracious? Can we understand what other people are walking through and be like, dude, I get it? Um, I may not have been there, I may not have had the exact same experience, but I get that you're working and you're doing your best. And can I help? Right. And in that helping, uh, maybe an invitation to to share the gospel, to share an invitation to come to church or a Bible study or a small group or uh or just a coffee, right? And to build relationships. Uh but on the flip side of that, to the to those that are unsaved, right? Or or or maybe aren't believers yet, um dude, like can you can you give some grace to the to the person who's talking to you about salvation, about God, about Christ. Um they're not professionals, right? They haven't been trained in this. They just have a calling, a prompting from the Spirit on their heart that says, Hey, I want to talk to you. And that's really what this conversation is today, is I want to talk to you. And I don't have it all together, and whoever's bringing this up to you doesn't have it all together, and they're still fallen and broken and sinners and uh you know, making mistakes every day and and aren't aren't living up to their full potential. Uh the only difference really is that they've chosen to surrender their life to realize that repeating more of what they've done is a definition of insanity and they're not getting there from here. Right? It's like that prodigal son, right? So what did it say? Let's just go back to the verse. Right. But when he came to himself, right? So he came from a distinguished family. He'd gotten his inheritance, he'd gone off to take the world by the tail, and he got rolled up with some bad cats or girls and and dudes and spent money doing stuff he shouldn't have done. And you know, maybe there were drugs or alcohol involved or prostitution, who knows what it is, right? Right. But each of us has a weakness that the world will gladly take advantage of. But in this case, when he comes to himself, he realizes that this isn't going to be done by my power. I'm not gonna get there under my own will. I get to submit to his will. And so uh to the unbelievers out there, can you just give whoever's talking to You have a little bit of grace and be like, they're just trying. They care. They have something that's so important to them that they're willing to get uncomfortable and talk to me. There's something so beautiful and important in their heart that they're they're risking looking bad. They're risking shattering, you know, some image that's out there. They're risking maybe a friendship or a relationship or status. Maybe they're risking being, you know, outcast or set aside or no longer being part of the part of the group. Like, like we don't know what that person's up against or the limiting beliefs or the things that are running around in their head. But in spite of all that, they had the courage to say, Hey, would you like to go to church with me? Hey, have you ever been to a small group? Hey, we got an Easter service or Christmas service coming up. Would you like to go? And that could be the most courageous thing that person's done in weeks, months, years, decades, or their entire life. And they are being courageous on your behalf. And so my invitation to all of us is let's be nice, let's be kind, let's be graceful, let's be uh just present with one another that we're trying to do our best, and that I can tell when something's coming from somebody's heart. And maybe it's not said perfectly, but let's let's help them understand. Let's give them a chance, right? So for the Christians, ask, invite, be bold, be courageous, live it out, right? Pastor Rick Warren said something the other day. He said when we get to heaven, which is gonna be awesome, uh, we can sing and dance and eat and play and hang out with our friends and do all the basically do everything we do all here on earth. And uh but Pastor Warren says there's two things I can't do in heaven. I can't sin and I can't lead people to Christ. So if you're still on earth, what do you think he's leaving you here for? So more on that. Had a great conversation with with Preston at lunch yesterday, and he had some really cool insights. And uh we're gonna actually reach out to Pastor Warren to discuss that one a little bit deeper with him. But the point being is uh we got a journey to take together as a community, right? As a family, as a community, as a state, as a nation, as a world, and it's it's towards salvation, right? And we each get to do our little bit, we each get an invite, we get to open that door. The Holy Spirit's alive and well and is moving, and and he will move mountains, right? But we just get to get to step into the arena together and and and be on this journey, right? And so that's the invitation, right? When your parents show up in the back room and you're playing pinball, unaware of the anguish that you have caused, the distress you have caused, the heartache your actions have caused, and you look in their eyes and you see that unfailing love, all they want to do is bring you home and rejoice. Rejoice because you were saved. So, hey, thank you for letting me wander down this path. Uh I'm certain this touched somebody. Uh, if you have a prodigal son or daughter that's out there, drop this in a text, send it to them, tell them you love them, tell them you forgive them, tell them you want nothing more than just to give them a hug and have the courage to let the past be in the past. Right? If you're lost and you have shame around things, the last thing you want to do is to be in a environment where people are going to shove that back in your face. Right? You know what you did. Right, you know what keeps you up at night. You know the things you wish you had to do over for. Um, but I promise you, those are the foundations upon which you can grow, right? And you can repent and begin again. And so let us let us all remember we're all broken, we're all lost, and we're now found. So thank you for listening. Please subscribe, please share. Um, please join us at navigatingleaders.com. Make sure you have your copy of the results tree. And until next time, I'm Gabriel Grease, founder of Navigating Leaders, your host, and we appreciate you. Take care and God bless.