FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “99+1”

“The Parable of the Lost Son” is one of my favorite Bible stories.  There was no Children’s Church in the congregations where I grew up, so every Sunday I sat with my parents in the sanctuary for worship.  I liked the hymns and was able to participate in the prayers, but the sermons were just over my head.  So when the pastor stepped into the pulpit, I would reach for the pew Bible and start reading my favorite stories.  Every. Sunday.  So I got to know this parable quite well.

Grab your family Bible and read through this wonderful story again.  You’ll find it in Luke 15:11-31.

It’s a great story, right?  You can almost see the big screen version, complete with dramatic music as the father runs toward his lost-now-found son.  It almost brings a  tear to your eye.  After all, everyone loves a reunion story.

But I have a confession to make.

When I was ten, sitting in those wooden pews reading this story…I agreed with the older son.  Each time I got to verse 25, my head would start to nod slightly and my chin would set in indignation as I read big brother’s complaints.  It wasn’t fair.  This kid took half of his father’s property and wasted it.  It was gone.  And now, after he’s fallen on his face and come crawling back…he gets a party???  Unbelievable!  And then you add insult to injury when you realize that his faithful first-born, the one who stayed and worked and served his father, was never once celebrated.  Not even a little.

I was so certain this brother was right, and it confused and frustrated me when I read what the father said.  I mean, it was obvious that Jesus was saying the father made the right choice, that the older brother was wrong in his thinking.  But why?  What in the world makes this story fair?

Well, I’ve got a few more decades on me now, and I’ve come to realize something.  It’s not fair.  Not one thing about this story is fair.  

It’s not fair that the younger son took his inheritance early.  

It’s not fair that he spent it on wild parties.

It’s not fair that a famine hit right in the middle of everything.

It’s not fair that the father took the son in and dressed him like an heir to the empire.

It’s not fair that he got a huge party thrown in his honor.

None of it’s fair—and I’m so glad for that!  My young, tween heart was so caught up in the rules of the world, focusing only on what was just…kind of like the older brother.  I was certain that people who broke the rules and made bad life choices deserved to be punished.  And they do.  But I forgot that I was a rule-breaker, too.  True, I had been attending church since before I could walk.  But that didn’t make me perfect.  It didn’t mean I was righteous.  It only meant I was eligible for the Perfect Attendance Award in Sunday school.  I didn’t deserve that party any more than you younger son did.  

Thankfully, though, God is both just AND gracious.  He knows that every sinner deserves a death sentence, but he also loves those sinners—his children—with an undeniable passion.  So he did the most unfair thing of all:  he sent Jesus.

It’s not fair that Jesus had to leave heaven.

It’s not fair He had to suffer through the struggles of life just to show us how to live in relationship with the Father.

It’s not fair He was arrested and beaten.

It’s not fair He suffered a horrible death on the cross.

It’s not fair He carried the burden of all our sins: your sins, my sins, every sin.

It’s not fair He had to endure hell.

And it’s not fair that since He was able to beat death, we no longer have to be punished.

It’s not fair at all.  But I’m so glad it’s the way it is!!!

Sometimes we can be tempted to cop an “older brother” attitude.  We look at the people around us who are struggling with big sins, making majorly unholy life choices, and we think, “They don’t deserve God’s grace!  They deserve to be punished.”  It’s true.  They don’t.  But we need to remember…neither do we.  

Let’s work to shake of that older brother attitude and try to be like the father, the Father, whose love embraces everyone willing to come back to him! 

FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “99+1”

So here’s a question: do you remember the last time you questioned God?  Now, I didn’t say, “When was the last time you had questions for God?”  I mean when’s the last time you struggled with who God is.  Do you remember having real doubts?  Was there a time you wrestled with whether or not this whole “Jesus thing” was really worth it?  Have you ever fallen into a pattern of thinking that life may just be easier if you called your own shots and got to do whatever you wanted to without needing “guidance” from the Father?  

That’s exactly what happens to the main character in our story today.  Jesus wraps up His “lost-and-found” trilogy with one of the most well-known parables in scripture.  Grab a Bible and read Luke 15:11-14.

I love scripture.  Really, I do.  But there are times I wish it was written in the last century, because then it would include some of the emotional details that make the stories so powerful.  This son disgraced his father.  By taking his inheritance early, he basically told Dad he wished he were dead.  Then he ran away from home and did the young adult version of blowing it all in Toys R Us.  Great plan!  Only after he was scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel, homeless and hungry, did he finally realize what he’d had in his relationship with his father.  And the cool part of this story is that, even with all of the hurt and stupid decisions, it’s the father who comes running down the road to meet his thankless son.  It’s the father who glosses over his son’s apology and goes straight into party-planning mode.  

This is the ultimate reconciliation story.  We love those!  But we don’t always know when we’re in one…or when we need to be in one.  Do you remember your own “prodigal” story?  Do you remember when you were living your own life, far away from the Father?  Do you remember when you decided to “go back” into relationship with him?  How he opened his arms of forgiveness and brought you into the family? 

Maybe this isn’t a story from your past but something you’re going through right now.  Are you wrestling with who God is: is he real, is he worth it, is he someone I should really choose to follow?  Maybe you’re living by your own rules, questioning whether you even need “the Father.”  It’s amazing how quickly we can slip into that kind of thinking, either because life seems to be going fine without a lot of holy help, or because we’re frustrated with the help we are getting.

I remember a conversation I had back when I was a youth pastor.  One of my teens very candidly shared that he fully intended to be the prodigal son.  “I want to be able to have my fun now when I’m young.  There will be plenty of time for God when I’m older.”  It’s been over 10 years, and that thought still weighs on me.  First of all, I’m older, I love God, and I still have fun.  But more importantly, this young man chose a life of sin, chose to turn his back on God…and he’s still wandering around all these years later, lost.

It took him a bit, but the prodigal son realized that the fun he so desperately wanted only lasted for a short while.  Then he was stuck in a life he wanted no part in.  He recognized that life with father, a life of being loved and cared for, was way better than anything else he could get for himself.  Do you know that today?  There are a lot of things tempting us out there, lots of different ideas about the right way to live.  But nothing—NOTHING—is better than being loved and cared for by the Creator himself.  It doesn’t matter what choices you’ve made, God is looking for you.  You could be questioning and doubting, or you could be flat-out running away—God is looking for you.  Maybe frustration has started to set in, or maybe you’ve been living with some sins for years—God is looking for you.  There is absolutely nothing you could do that will keep him from reaching out to you.  I guarantee that if you start walking back to God right now, he will come bolting to meet you and, according to verse 10, throw a welcome home party like you’ve never seen before.

We are working together as families to reach the +1’s God has placed in our schools, our neighborhoods, and our work places.  Before we do that, let’s reach out to the +1’s in our homes.  See if anyone sitting with you wants to pray right now and leave that sin-filled life, leave the frustrations and the doubts, and ask God to welcome them back home.  Then gather together and pray.  There are no magic words.  Just ask God to forgive you and be your Father.  Then end your family time with a little party…just like the angels!