Living Less-Loved

Haha so this post is waaaaaaaay more deeper than the last 27 combined. Enjoy and absorb :P :)

So today was a fantabulous day gathering with the house fellowship. It developed into one of those days where I'm just beaming with excitement for what the Lord has done, is doing, and will do! Hallelujah! There is such joy that comes from freely experiencing the love of Jesus... if only more people knew.

I am kind of at a stage now where I am trying to understand why soooooooo many believers are not fully experiencing His awesomeness. It's one thing to explain His awesomeness to someone who doesn't believe in the Christian God, but it's a whoooooooole nother can of worms when trying to share it with someone who knows God, but not uber-uber-personally. One of the most important traits any person can have in this world, but especially Christians, is to have a teachable spirit. I URGE and PRAY for you that the next time you're challenged by something theologically (like you might be in a few short moments), that you consider what God is trying to teach you and not jump to defending your position. I'm definitely guilty of this too so feel free to point it out to me next time- I am getting better, but you pointing it out is for my own good and means I will get better faster anyways. Nevertheless, I digress from Christ's awesomeness...

For those of you that know of my huge and ever-growing passion for the lost (aka those that don't know Jesus), I think my passion for found-that-don't-realize-what-they've-found is growing even faster. It's one of those pit-in-the-stomach feelings when I come across Christians who're plain and simple, missing out on 90% of what God has to offer (that is a fake statistic by the way... but you get the idea ;)). Of all the things that God pointed out during my time with the traditional church I was attending quasi-regularly this spring and summer, I think this was probably the biggest observation that sticks out, at least for now.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32... if you don't have a Bible, check it out at www.biblegateway.com). But have you ever thought about it from the perspective of the son that stayed home the whole time and was mighty ticked off when his father started throwing is prodigal brother a party? How many Christians look at their Heavenly Father in this way, in that they just don't get what they've had all along, even though the people walking into it for the first time in ages (if ever) realize the Father's awesomeness right away? I know the numbers sadly add up to few who fully realize the value of a minute-to-minute, deep, intensely awesome (I seem to be using that word a lot...) relationship with the Lord, no fake statistics either. As Wayne Jacobsen suggests, perhaps the Prodigal Son parable would be better named as "Parable of the Incredible Father." ... [And I know that this is a lot of text that follows, but I wouldn't have taken the time if I didn't feel strongly that this would be extremely beneficial for some of you to read]...

Anyone hearing Jesus' story for the first time would be shocked at this father's actions. His arrogant son dishonours (:P... insert Canadian spelling here) him by asking for his inheritance while the father is still alive, and who by all indications is nowhere near death's door. What kind of son claims his father's inheritance while he's still alive? How dare he even ask!

As rude as the son's request might be, we can at least understand it. We all know what it is to want to get our hands on dad's money, even if most of us are too civil to pursue it. But it's this father who defies comprehension.

What does the father do in response to this outrageous request? He gives it to him.

This is even more shocking than the son asking. He divides the inheritance between his two sons and lets him go. How many fathers would do that, especially when they knew the younger son was up to no good?

What kind of father is this?

The son squanders his inheritance on his own pleasure, instead of investing if for the future. But the father does not go and nag him. He finally loses it all and ends up destitute. But the father does not try to rescue him.

Where is the father? He is back on the farm, waiting. He doesn't chase after his son to tell him that he's foolish nor does he rush off to buy him dinner when famine hits. He waits.

What kind of father is this?

Is he indifferent to his son's plight? Any parent who has ever watched their son or daughter make bad choices, knows that waiting is far more difficult than prodding or nagging. But wait he does, for a marvelous thing to happen-to let the son come to his senses.

We soon find out, however, just how expectant that waiting was. Years later when he returns the father spots him while he is still a long ways off. The only way that would have happened was if the father had been constantly looking. He probably never walked by the road without looking down it, hoping against hope that today would be the day his boy would come home. I can see him with one eye on his work, the other focused down the road, looking for the familiar gait of his beloved son. One day he spots him, even though he would have been emaciated with hunger and hunched over in humiliation. "That's him! That's my boy!"

What does he do now? Does he stand on the porch with arms crossed waiting for his son to walk all the way to the house humiliated, then fall down in the dirt and grovel for his next meal? That's what I might have done [ME TOO]. I would even have practiced my I-hope-you-learned-your-lesson speech. Not this father.

Without hesitation the father jumps off the porch and runs down the road. This is all the more amazing when you remember how this father would have been dressed. He wouldn't have been wearing pants or jogging shorts, but long, cumbersome robes. In that time it was dishonourable for an older man to run, exposing his legs in the process. But this father again demonstrates his love by sacrificing his own dignity in deference to his son. He hiked up his robes and went barreling down the road as fast as he could run.

What kind of father is this?

... skipping a lot here ...

Though it may appear that what the son wanted drove this story, a closer look shows just otherwise. What the Father wanted is the key here, and he wanted it so desperately he would spare nothing to have it. What do you think that was?

Was it to be with his sons or to have them labour in his fields? No, the story started there and he could easily have kept the younger one there by refusing his request and giving him no opportunity to make such a wreak of his life. That wasn't enough for this father. He wanted something more.

What he didn't have was a loving relationship with either of his sons. The younger son only saw him as a conduit to his own pleasures; the elder as a taskmaster to serve in the fields. They were both in the house, but neither was at home in his love. Could that be why the father let the younger son go? Rather than force him to stay and deepen his hostility, he let him go to run to the end of his own self-sufficiency and find out who his father really was [My testimony in a nutshell!].

...skipping....

In this incredible story, when do you think the father loved his son the most?

Every time I share this story I ask people that question. Almost always the first answers select the moment where the father meets the son on the road. After a bit more thought, however, some suggest it might be when the father gives him his inheritance and lets him go. Only then does it become clear: there is no point in the story where the father loved his son more than at any other point. He loved him completely through the whole process. It is the only constant in the story. The events in this story cannot be accounted for by the varying love of the father-only the varying perception of it by the son. Though he was not less-loved at any point in the story, through most of it he lives as if he was [Been there! Done that!].

When he took the money from his father and stormed off the farm grateful to be out from under his clutches and free to pursue his own way, he lived less-loved.

When he spent this money in a foreign land, wasting it on his own pleasures and thinking he'd finally fooled his father, he lived less-loved.

Even when he started for home practicing his plea of repentance, willing only to be a slave to a father who had sought a son, he lived less-loved.

But finally, when he's home in the robe, the sandals, and the ring, sitting at his father's table sinking his teeth into the filet mignon, it finally sinks in. He is loved. But he always was! It's just that now he can stop living as if he wasn't.

Most of our lives are spent living less-loved.

When we worry that God will ask us for some horrible sacrifice, we live less-loved.

When we indulge ourselves in sin, we live less-loved.

When we give into anxiety in the crush of our circumstances, we live less-loved.

When we try to earn God's favour by our own efforts, we live less-loved.

Even when we get caught up in religious obligations to make ourselves acceptable to him, we live less-loved.

That is the story of the older brother. At the end of the story he is so angry at his father for receiving his wayward brother home, he refuses to come to the house and join the celebration. ***********He had stayed with his father, never having run off to pursue his own aims, but still missed out on the relationship his father wanted with him.********** Though a son, he saw himself only as a slave and every request of his father as an onerous chore.

The first on represents those who run from God by indulging their own selfish pursuits; the older son represents those who work hard to impress God with their commitment. Fearful of the consequences of not doing so, they slave away for him [can you name like 10 of these people?! Not hard...]. But they never come to the depth of relationship the Father wants with them. The Pharisees in Jesus' day were like that as are many people today who are caught up in a host of religious activities, but miss out on what it really means to live in the Father's love.

In the long run it doesn't matter whether rebellion or religion keep you from a vibrant relationship with the Father, the result is still the same. He is cheated out of the relationship he wants with you, and you never come to know how he feels about you.

Jesus ends the story at an interesting point. The younger son is in the house enjoying his new-found relationship with his father. The older son is still outside weighing his options. Will he come to know just how much he is loved and join the celebration, or will he remain convinced of his father's unfairness and remain outside angry and alone?

The choice is his--and it is yours! Everything about your life hinges on the answer to one simple question.

Do you know how loved you really are?

Isn't it time you found out?



Wow, eh? Ephesians 3:17-19 fits in nicely here: And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. For the love of God (truly!), ask God to show you where you live less-loved. What does it make you do-run to your own way like the younger brother or work even harder like the older one? God wants you to know that there is nothing you can do to make him love you any more today, and nothing you can do that will make him love you any less. He just loves you. Ask him to teach you how true that is so you can live. in. freedom.

Praise God! Hallelujah! Amen!