Good evening, both of my loyal readers! Wait…there’s only one of you left! Anyway, here’s a long-overdue contribution to the old blog.
- Hanging at home, with an iTunes Genius playlist fueled by the great Hillsong classic Mighty to Save. For some reason, that song never, ever gets old and tired to me.
- The hanging at home thing is also powered by a French press full of Brazil Peaberry, one of my favorites from WeeklyRoast.
- BTW…why aren’t you getting your coffee from my buddy Ken at WeeklyRoast? Well, why not?
- I finished a series-within-a-series this morning on the parables of Jesus from Luke’s blog…uh…Gospel.
- We looked at the familiar story of The Prodigal Son. No, not that one. The other one. The one that stayed around but was farther from home than his kid brother.
- See, in the context of the story – see Luke 15:1-2 for the setup – the older son was the one that needed the dad to go find him. Even though he was right outside in the field.
- Yeah, yeah…I know. We’ve always focused on the kid brother. It’s the twist that makes the story powerful, though. What twist?
- I’m glad you asked!
- Part 1 of the Lost and Found trilogy is about a shepherd with 100 sheep. One gets away. What does the shepherd do? He goes looking for the lost sheep. He expends energy. He does everything he can to find the lost sheep. And when he finds the little lamb, wandering in the wilderness, he loads it up on his shoulders and takes it home, rejoicing!
- Part 2? A woman has ten coins, and somehow loses one. What does she do? She turns her house upside down trying to recover ten percent of her wealth. She expends energy. She does everything she can to find the lost coin. And when the coin turns up in the sofa cushion, she calls her neighbors for a little impromptu party! (I made up the part about the sofa cushion.)
- Part 3 is the biggest chunk of the story. It’s about a man with two sons. The younger gets all uppity one day, says some horrible things about his dad, demands his share of the old man’s money, and splits! Get ready…here comes the twist.
- Oh, wait…Third Day’s Your Love Oh Lord just kicked in on the iTunes playlist. Love those guys!
- Where was I? Oh, the twist…
- What does the dad do in response to his immature brat of a kid taking his money, leaving for a far country, and blowing the whole wad on riotous living? Go ahead…I’ll wait while you tell me about the dad’s response…
- Got it? Good! How far did the dad go to find the kid? How far was that again? If you said something like, “All the way to the far country,” or something like that, that would be a good guess. But it wouldn’t win the prize tonight!
- The dad waited at home. Yep, he was there, everyday, watching, hoping, trusting. But he was waiting. And one day, the kid had come to his senses in the pigpen, and realized his need for his dad. He came home, and his dad was there, waiting for him. And the par-tay ensued!
- What about the older son? He’s the one the dad had to look for. He’s the one the dad expended energy to find. The older son is the one that was far from the dad’s heart, and he was literally in the house the whole time!
- And as far as we can tell from Luke’s careful reporting of the story, the older son still hasn’t dropped his resentment, self-centeredness, and superiority complex and joined the party!
- Hmmm…how about that for a twist? And did you catch the connection to the setup? Yeah, I thought so…