prodigal

A Heart Hungry To Worship Part 7

/ taethne

I have come to know a God whose Son made prodigals the heroes of His stories and the trophies of His ministry.[1]

Chapter 6

The Prodigal’s Story

Jesus told a story of a young man that many people consider one of the greatest short stories of all time. It’s very familiar to many people because it is included in several high school literature books as well as the New Testament. Many of us can identify with one or more of the main characters. If you’re not familiar with this story, please take the time now to read it.

It seems that this ordinary family, a family that, while not rich, certainly was financially comfortable. The father and his two boys worked the family business, which had become profitable. One of the brothers worked diligently, if not happily, doing his duty. The younger brother worked resentfully, thinking it beneath his station in life.

Tiring of the daily toil, he demanded that his father give him the share of the inheritance he would receive after his father’s death. In those days, the custom was that the eldest brother would receive a double share and ownership of the business. Perhaps there was conflict between the siblings – the last part of the story hints at this. Maybe the older brother continually reminded his younger brother that he would one-day work for him. We don’t know what precipitated the demand from the youngest son but it occurred.

The audience that Jesus told the story to was shocked. In their society, this was a grievous affront, a huge sign of disrespect. It was as if the young man had said, “I cannot wait for you to die. Give me my share of your money right now. That’s all I want from you.” His words show not only greed, but also a complete sense of selfishness and disloyalty to his family. He wants to get away from them so bad that he doesn’t even plan to return for his father’s funeral or the reading of his will. He wants what is his and to rid himself of all ties to his family.

Instead of arguing with his son, the father accedes to the demand. He gives his son the money and watches him walk away. He sees his son leave behind his family, his heritage, and his faith. The father longs and hopes that his son will return, but knows it will take a change of heart for that to happen. He keeps watch for that day, praying that God will draw him back one day, someway, somehow.

So many families can relate to this portrayal. Many parents have helplessly watched their child sever ties with them and all for which they stand. They’ve seen their child reject their values and the faith they instilled in them. Many parents hear harsh and rash words spoken by a child storming off, leaving them watching and hoping for their safe return. Like Renaldo going off on his own, leaving behind the faith of his grandmother and her home, this prodigal abandons his father’s house.

The young man decides that since he is out from under the oppressive rule of his father, he’ll live his life as he has always dreamed of living it. Immediately, he goes to the big city, a place where the action is. No more denying his desires; now, he will fulfill his every longing. He finds friends easily; at least, the kind money can buy. He lives a wild life of pleasure and partying. He’s the master of his destiny; he’s charting his own course in life. The story doesn’t tell us how long his life went on like this.  It apparently was long enough so that his family thought he was dead. Eventually, of course, his money runs out. When that occurs, the young man begins to realize just who his true friends are – no one.

He is alone in the city. He has no relatives, no friends, and no income. His prospects for employment are limited by the fact that he doesn’t have a place of his own and by his limited skills. He grew up in a rural setting. He underwent no training in any area where he might find an apprenticeship. His work ethic and lifestyle were not likely to garner anyone taking a chance on hiring him. Added to that, the entire country was in the midst of a famine. For an agrarian society, this would have sent the country into a deep recession, if not an outright depression. There were no jobs available. In desperation, he took the only job for which he is qualified – feeding animals on a farm. It is amazing (and ironic) how taking control of his own life led him to one that was eerily similar to the one he’d left behind.

So many people fail to realize that changing locations in order to start over will not help them if they don’t change too. A person brings their baggage with them to a new location and soon their new life becomes just as miserable as the one they left behind. This young man’s destiny, the course of life he has charted, has just shipwrecked itself on an island of despair.

There is very little food to eat, because of the famine. What livestock are left have become valuable. Animals such as pigs, which eat almost anything, are very valuable, much more so than the hired servant who feeds them. The animals feed first, then the servants. Very soon, he realizes that he has hit rock bottom. He is starving. He has messed his life up beyond his ability to repair the damage. He looks back at his childhood, to the years spent working for his father. The things that he had thought were so terrible now seem so much better than his present circumstances. He also remembers how he left his father. He remembers the words he said, the actions he took. He realizes that in severing all ties with his family he has cut himself off from the one person who might be able to help him. Like Renaldo, he desires to start over again but is not sure how to do it.

Finally, this prodigal decides that he will return home. He knows that he no longer has any claim on his father’s possessions. He realizes that in renouncing his family he has no right to expect them to welcome his return. He does hope that his father will hire him as a servant. At least, he figures, he will not starve to death. He knows how his father treats his hired hands, their wages, and their living conditions. It’s far better than where he finds himself at present.  Steeling his resolve, he sets out for home.

The Scriptures tell us that while the prodigal was still a long way off, his father spied him trudging down the road. The father’s love for his son hasn’t diminished. Though his son’s actions deeply hurt him, his love never wavered. He runs to his son, wraps his arms around him and kisses him.

The prodigal is deeply ashamed of himself. He is ashamed of all he has done. In humility, he tells his father, “I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”[2] His father, though, gives him a new change of clothes, a ring identifying him as a member of the family and orders a feast prepared. He is restoring his son to the family.

The prodigal will have to live with the consequences of his actions. He cannot erase the past. He no longer has a share of the inheritance. What he has, though, is a restored relationship with his father.

The prodigal and Renaldo share some things. Both of them left a good, stable home. Both Renaldo and the prodigal wanted to experience all that life had to offer, free of restraints. Both of them found that their lives did not turn out the way that they had planned. The prodigal found he was stranded in another country, starving and bankrupt. Renaldo found himself with two failed marriages and no ability to keep a steady job. Both of them realized they messed up their lives and couldn’t do anything to extricate them from where they were.

The Holy Spirit sometimes must completely break a person before they will acknowledge that they need help. This was the case with Renaldo and the prodigal. The Holy Spirit arranged circumstances in both lives to draw them into a relationship. The Holy Spirit acts and the prodigal is restored to his father; Renaldo, to God the Father.

Lance also had to be broken by the Holy Spirit. His heart, who felt no regret for using and taking advantage of people, had to be changed. When Lance repented and asked for forgiveness, he found it and his relationship with both God and the church restored.

The Spirit continues to use circumstances to draw people’s hearts to worship God. It would be a shame if He has to go to the lengths with you as He did with the prodigal. It is comforting, though, to know that He will go that far to bring you into a relationship with God the Father. How far away, from God, are you right now? How out of control is your life? Is it beyond your ability to fix? What is keeping you from turning your life over to God right now by receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior?

[1] Philip Yancy, What Good is God?: In Search of a Faith That Matters

[2] Luke 15:21

A Heart Hungry To Worship Part 6

/ taethne

“Dear God, 
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists! 
Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to? 
Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands? 
Please help me to gradually open my hands 
and to discover that I am not what I own, 
but what you want to give me.”[1]

Chapter 5

Renaldo and Lance’s Stories

            Renaldo rode his bicycle to work, head down against the brisk, chill wind. He mentally beat himself up for driving with a suspended license the week before. It certainly was stupid, but it beat biking to work in the winter. If only he had paid more attention to the cop who was behind him, maybe he wouldn’t be freezing this morning.

            Renaldo was very good at his construction job, which was the only reason his boss kept him on. He had numerous run-ins with the law; DUI’s, fights in bars, drunk and disorderly conduct, etc. When sober, Renaldo did great work; his skills at carpentry and mason work were second-to-none. When he drank, it was a different story.

            Twice married, he was involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with a girl he had dated back in high school, twenty years earlier. The relationship was off now and instead of living at her house, Renaldo had only a little camper that he pulled with his pick-up. 

While he loved construction work, most places in town wouldn’t employ him anymore. Too many work days missed because he was in jail for something or other (most times he couldn’t remember what he was charged with) too many fights with co-workers after hours;  all of these things limited the number of companies which were willing to hire him. His current employer used him on only the most difficult jobs, on a contract basis.

Renaldo reflected on his life as he rode. He wondered how it had turned out this way. He remembered his grandmother; she had passed away last year and he still missed her, terribly. She had raised him from the age of four until he had dropped out of high school and married at sixteen.

“If ever there was a saint,” he mused, “It was grandmother.” She had made sure to take him with her to church and Sunday School every week. He remembered how he had chafed as a teenager, sitting on those hard wood benches as the preacher droned on and on in a monotone voice. Something must have stuck with him, though. He could still remember songs from Sunday School, making crafts at the summer Bible School and somewhere in his camper was the little New Testament he received as a prize for memorizing Scripture verses.

He thought of his grandmother’s last few days. He sat in her room at the nursing home for a week straight, afraid that if he left even for a little while that she would die before he returned. He also thought of the young pastor, about his age, which had spent almost as much time with her as he had. It was obvious that he was close to her as well. Renaldo remembered his grandmother’s last night. Weakly, but distinctly, he heard her say the words to her favorite hymn repeatedly.

He also remembered that he had promised her that he would go back to church. It was time, he resolved, to keep his promise. He would go to his grandmother’s church to honor her memory. Renaldo hoped it would not be as boring as he remembered.

The next Sunday Renaldo showed up for the morning service. He wore his best clothes – jeans that were not too faded and a shirt he had picked up at the Salvation Army thrift store. He felt out of place at first, but then he saw many older people whom he remembered as his grandmother’s friends. He even saw his old Sunday School teacher, who not only remembered him but also welcomed him warmly and invited him to sit next to her.

The thing that struck him the most about the service was the sermon. The pastor was not boring. In fact, he talked about the struggles various people encountered in life and how the Bible talked about Jesus’ promise to be with his followers through their struggles. He was surprised to hear this, since he thought Christians didn’t have (or weren’t supposed to have) problems.

After the service, the pastor asked him how he was doing and expressed how much he missed Renaldo’s grandmother. Before he realized it, Renaldo accepted an invitation to dinner with the pastor’s family later in the week. “Great,” he thought, “He will badger me about Jesus and stuff.” Still, a promise was a promise and Renaldo did his best to keep his promises.

At dinner that Thursday night, Renaldo was surprised to find he was having fun. The pastor’s wife had fixed a simple meal but to Renaldo it tasted better than what he usually heated up on his camp stove. It turned out that the family played board games at suppertime and Renaldo was invited to play with them. After supper, the kids went off to do their chores while the pastor and Renaldo sat on the porch with coffee.

“Here it comes,” he thought, “Now is the time for the Jesus speech.” Instead, the pastor shared his memories of his grandmother and Renaldo responded with his own. As the evening ended, the pastor invited Roberto to drop by anytime he needed to talk, wanted a home-cooked meal or just to hang out. As they walked to the door, the pastor told Renaldo that his grandmother had prayed for him every day. “Every day she prayed you would come back to church. I believe she is very happy to see you come back as she watches from heaven.”

Renaldo lay in his camper that night and decided that he’d go back to church on Sunday. The people were nice, no one looked down on him and he really liked how the pastor’s family treated him. If that is how Christians acted, maybe becoming one wasn’t such a bad thing after all. He would have to give it some serious thought.

As the months went by, Renaldo continued to attend the services at the church. Various members of the church hired him to do construction work on the side, which really helped him to financially get ahead a little bit. He volunteered to help with the sound system, as it allowed him to attend services but keep his distance by being sequestered in the sound room. A church leader even asked him to participate in church activities, to help chaperone some teenage boys on a trip. At first, he protested, saying he wouldn’t be a good role model because of the troubles in his past. They told him that was exactly what would make a good chaperone. With him on guard, none of the kids would be able to get by with anything because he already knew all the tricks. Little by little, Renaldo was drawn into the life of the church.

Slowly, Renaldo came to realize that more than anything, he wanted a life like the people in the church, and one like his grandmother had lived. One Sunday morning he surprised himself by walking up to the pastor and saying, “I am ready to stop running my life my way. All I do is mess it up. I want Jesus to take control of it.”

Renaldo had finally found what he had been searching for in his life. God had drawn Renaldo and his life would never be the same. I know this, because I was the young pastor that ministered to Renaldo.

While he still has a way to go in dealing with the consequences of his past actions, Renaldo does not have to face them alone anymore. The Holy Spirit continues to draw Renaldo into a closer relationship with God, who cares about him, and a closer relationship with a church family who is willing to help.

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Lance was a long-time member of our church. He had been there years prior to my becoming pastor, though much about him remained a mystery. Lance would attend for a few weeks and then disappear for months at a time. When he showed back up, he was always living at a different address and recently employed at either a menial job or unemployed.

For years, the church had been generous to Lance. Both corporately and individually, the church members helped him financially, found jobs for him and even bought him furniture and food. He was always appreciative and grateful. Lance promised each time to repay those who had helped him, but no one ever expected him to. It seemed that he was just one of those people, who tried hard, but could never get ahead. Everyone liked him, but no one really knew anything about Lance. He kept his personal life private, even though many people made the effort to get to know him better.

One fall, Lance attended a series of revival services at church. The Holy Spirit did a mighty work on him that evening. Lance stood in the back, tears running down his face during the closing song. Before the service could end, he came to the front of the sanctuary and asked if he could address the church for a few minutes. The story he shared with us that night stunned everyone in the building.

Lance confessed to the church that he had been scamming them for years. He was actually pretty well off, financially. The reason for his disappearances for weeks at a time was that he went to Alaska and Canada to work. Sometimes, he would work on fishing vessels, other times in the oil fields. He confessed that he made very good money. In between jobs, he would come back home and rent a place to live by the week. While he didn’t need money, he said that it was just so easy to ask the church for help, knowing that they would oblige. The money and food he kept, furniture and other clothes he sold for even more money.

Lance went on to say that until that night, he had never felt a minute of regret for taking advantage of the church’s generosity. He went on to say that he was sorry, that God’s Spirit had convicted him of his thieving and lying, and that he had asked forgiveness from God. Now, he was wondering, could the church forgive him?

There was a silence across the congregation for almost a full minute as his words sunk in. One could see people struggling to process what they had just heard. Finally, hemmed in by people on both sides of his seat, Doug rose up. He had given Lance a lot of money over the years.  Not waiting for those around him to let him out of the row, Doug climbed over the pews and made his way forward. Lance visibly flinched, expecting the worse. Instead, he found the best.

Grabbing him in a hug, Doug publically forgave him. He rejoiced that God had reached Lance’s heart and changed it. The rest of the church was not far behind. Lance experienced the cleansing power of forgiveness that night. He was welcomed into the fellowship of his church family again. His heart became free to worship God, as the bonds of his sinful actions were broken. He was drawn back to God by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, much like the famous story of the Prodigal Son, found in Luke, chapter 15.

[1] Henry Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Praying Life

Great Quotes From Ages Past – #2

/ taethne

Completely agree with this quotes:

“Sometimes we are inclined to think that a very great portion of modern revivalism has been more a curse than a blessing, because it has led thousands to a kind of peace before they have know their misery; restoring the prodigal to the Father’s house, and never making him say, “Father, I have sinned”

C.H. Spurgeon