Friday Thought -- July 8, 2011

Good Morning Friends,

"Jesus continued:  'There was a man who had two sons.  The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.'  So he divided his property between them.  Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.  After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.  So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.  He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.'" (Luke 15:11-16)

The first part of the parable of the prodigal son tells the story of what it's like to be lost.  It's a story most of us are familiar with because it is our story.  The world looks so inviting, especially when we are young.  We feel confined by the things we've been taught about God's standards and we want out.  We want to be free to have a good time and live like we want to live instead of being bound by things that seem only designed to take away our fun.  So, many of us left the Father's house and traveled down that road of what we thought was freedom.

Like the prodigal, we find out that what looked like freedom and fun from a distance wasn't so free and wasn't so fun.  In the end, we realized that life away from God was empty and miserable.  That's what the son realized after he had squandered his money.  He found himself in deep need and it was in that deep need that he turned back toward his father's house.

When you look at the lives of the people who live and work around you who do not know God their lives sometimes seem so good.  They are free, they are having fun -- or so it seems.  But remember your own story and remember the truth told by the prodigal -- the freedom and fun of the world are illusions that last only briefly and soon turn to the emptiness they really are.  True freedom and true satisfaction are found in one place and in one place only -- with the Father!

His, by Grace,

Steve