Missing the point.

“ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ” - Luke 15:31-32

Many of us have read the parable of the prodigal son, and know its intent all too well - the Father heart of God.  When I re-read this, it is not the abundant grace that the father in the story pours out on the prodigal son that speaks most to me, but the final scene in which the father speaks with his older son. 

He was intensely jealous because his younger brother had obtained such favor in spite of his unfilial behavior. He had spent his best years working hard for his father without lament, yet he receives none of the attention the family wastrel gets upon his return. Of course, we say he missed the point of the father's jubilee, which is focused on the lost-and-found circumstance of the prodigal son. 

"You are always with me, and everything I have is yours" - how could the older son miss such a simple truth about his father's love for him? Was he neglected? Surely not, for if the father represented God, then this father figure must love both sons equally much. How could I miss this truth about God the Father as well? Through the lenses I view Him with.

I have been wearing lenses that paint Him in a different light. Almighty Lord, Righteous Judge, Wonderful Creator, but NOT Loving Father, or at least not strongly enough. If Jesus died to grant fallen Man a chance to enter the presence of God the Father, then I missed the point about being in a relationship with Him. The key characteristic of the relationship I have with Him is neither Creator and created, nor Lord and servant, but Father and son. I feel like such a fool, as did the older son when he finally realized his father's heart towards him. 

Postscript: I should also make note to hold my tongue and my contempt for advice that is spoken in love.

With a new mind

Words like "inner man", "dwell in your hearts through faith", "renewed in the spirit of your minds" are poignant reminders for a carnal man like me. They remind me that I am three-in-one - soul, spirit and flesh. Furthermore, Paul speaks like this: "you took off your former way of life, the old man that is corrupted by deceitful desires...you put on the new man, the one created according to God's likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth." (Ephesians 4:22-24)

How can I live like a savage who's never seen fire? Or a child who's never had a shower? It is crass, absolutely revolting that I continue to even indulge any part of the old self. It is more than forging new habits, more than finding right company, pursuing righteousness and justice. All things Christians do need not be Christian, or church, or spiritual, but all things done should find their purpose in Him who made us "no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God's household." (Ephesians 2:19)