Prodigal

   I think I finally get the story of the Prodigal Son.

   You're probably thinking . . . how does one not get the story of the Prodigal Son? Well, I've been wondering that for years.

   I'm sure you know the story. There's a dad and two brothers. One brother is the kind of kid you'd think every parent would dream of - super responsible, always getting things done, follows all the rules. And then there's the other brother who doesn't really care about that stuff. He leaves the family to go off on his own, the dad gets upset, the son comes back, the dad is overjoyed and has a big celebration. The responsible brother then gets all upset because the dad never celebrated him. The moral of the story is supposed to be that dads (namely, our Heavenly Father) have unconditional love for their children and that the older brother was no better than the younger brother.

   Here's what I've always thought about it: I understood that the older brother was supposed to represent a person trying to obtain salvation through works alone. I understood that he thought he was better than his brother for what he had done, and this was wrong. And I understood that it was wrong for him to be jealous of the celebration for his brother coming home. But I felt for the older brother.  I thought that it was no wonder that the older brother was upset, clearly the father didn't love him as much as the younger brother. Here the dad was throwing this huge feast for the younger brother and the story never mentions any kind of love poured out onto the older brother. I'd be upset!

   So, I always sort of thought the story was flawed, but it seemed like everyone else was so willing to accept it that I must be wrong. Maybe we were supposed to assume that the father had thrown parties for the older son before? And that the older son was just jealous because he didn't think the younger brother deserved them as much as he did? But I don't like to assume things.

   On Sunday I think I finally understood. It's not that the father didn't love the older son, but that the older son wasn't accepting the father's love. The son asks, "Why don't you celebrate me?" and the father says, "Everything I have is yours." The father wanted to share everything with the older son, including his love, but the older son just wanted something superficial - like a party. The son performed a bunch of superficial gestures to earn his father's love, all the while never really loving his father, and then he wanted superficial rewards in return. 

   "Everything I have is yours" is what our Heavenly Father tells each and every one of us. Do we just want a big party thrown in our honor instead of his love? Do we want him to give us a big house or an expensive car or a family or a prestigious job so that we can love those things instead of God? Do we want to do a thousand good deeds in his name so that people will believe certain things about us? Do we choose to believe in God's existence and do only what we feel we have to in order to procure life after death?

   That doesn't seem right, does it?

   I know that a lot of people think it's hokey or cult-like or whatever to pursue "a relationship" with God, as opposed to just belief and reverence. But it's not. This parable is Biblical and it's proof that there is more to being a Christian than just what we think we can get out of that title. It is about a relationship - a genuine, loving relationship.

   The Father wants to share his love with his older children, but we have to be willing to accept it for that to work.
   
   
- Courtney

(Sorry this isn't about the Old Testament . . .)

An Encountering

This is what I think. I think so many “Christians”, so many who claim the title but not the shame and suffering that comes with it, do so because they haven’t had something. They haven’t encountered Christ. They haven’t encountered His love. And I think without that, without encountering Christ and His unfathomable, unrelenting, awe-inspiring, head-tilting and jaw-dropping love, we are just swimming around in a pool without water, on the verge of drowning to death.

I know so, so many people who tell me they are Christians. And what they, and the rest of our society, (and at one point I) have done is watered down the name. The title of “Christian” is an all out honor. It is an HONOR to say that I follow Him.    
"How GREAT is the love the Father has LAVISHED on us, that we should be called children of God!" 1John 3:1


         But so many of us don’t get it!! We don’t GRASP what it is that the Gospel IS! It is a love story guys!! It’s the story of a man, who created children that turned around and spat on and denied Him. But He yearned to spend time with them so badly that He became one of them and let them KILL Him!!! JUST to be able to be with us guys!!! But we’re not getting it!! America isn’t getting it!! So these “Christians” walk around, and they tell people what (when it should be who) they are. They proclaim the self-righteous title of “Christian” so that others will think that they are a “good person”. They act like it’s cool, like it’s easy, like “God will never give you more than you can handle” and “It’s ok. God’s in control” and “Let me tell you other cliche loads of bologna that I don’t even understand so that IIII can make you feel better. By the way, did I mention I’m a Christian?” It’s not easy guys! Time and again we are promised trials and tribulations. We are not promised that He won’t “give us more than we can handle”. We are promised that when that comes, and it will, we will not be alone. If we can’t handle it, and there will be times when we can’t, then God, our Great Redeemer, our sweet and loving Father, our Alpha and Omega, our Good Shepard, then He will sweep us up in His never-weary arms and carry us the rest of the way. I want so badly for everyone to grasp this. To ENCOUNTER Him!!!! He is REAL guys!!!! God is REAL!!! Don’t water down His name. Don’t throw around the name of His followers as though it’s a merit-badge that will gain you credit just as long as you leave it at surface level. Allow Him to invade the darkest depths of your soul. He’s already there, but He actually wants your permission to explore, transform, mold, and love. And once you encounter Him. Once you allow and receive and invite Him in entirely, you will never, ever, be the same again. That’s one of my favorite of His promises.
I love you, but not near as much as God does.
Ariel

Exodus 21-40: Sabbath

   Everyone needs a little rest. According to the Bible, 1/7 of our waking time should be restful.

   The Sabbath is something that has been on my mind a lot this week. I heard a sermon once about how the Sabbath is . . . well, a real thing. It's a Biblical directive that we should allot time for resting. Just like we should honor our father and mother and not murder people and have no other gods or idols. I think it's interesting how we ascribe so much importance to the 10 commandments . . . and then kind of ignore that whole Sabbath thing. Or maybe I'm wrong in thinking a lot of other people besides myself don't consider that commandment as being of equal importance to the rest. 

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   Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all of your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. Exodus 20:8-11

   Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed. Exodus 23:10-12 

   You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy. Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you.  Exodus 31:13-17

   The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27

   There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest. Hebrews 4:9-11
           

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   My thoughts on the meaning of the Sabbath: It doesn't have to be Sunday; I think the importance is an exchange of 6 days work for 1 day rest. What constitutes "work" and "rest" is probably different for everyone; resting doesn't have to mean sitting in a chair and staring at the wall all day . . . but I guess maybe it could for some people. Keeping the Sabbath "holy" seems to mean that worship or some kind of intimate time spent with the Lord is involved. 

   These are the problems I have with it:

A. I don't get enough stuff done in the other 6 days of the week, so the 7th day is for overflow.

1. What am I saying? That the world just ends if I don't do all of these things I feel like I have to do? That my influence and impact in those things is that important? Thinking through it makes me feel a little arrogant and a lot that I'm just kind of forgetting that God runs the show. Clearly he thinks 6 days of work is sufficient, so why am I trying to say otherwise? 
2. Why am I not getting enough done in those first 6 days? Am I not managing my time well? Am I wasting time with frivolous or pointless things? Do I have too much on my plate? Am I over committed and overextended? Are my priorities in line? Doing a lot of stuff or trying to be super-wife or super-achiever is cool, but realistically I have a finite amount of resources and time. 

B. What do I even find restful?

• Okay, that sounds weird. But I've been noticing that things I thought were relaxing aren't doing it for me anymore, if they ever did in the first place. 
• I spend all week in go-mode, and then I don't know how to stop or I feel weird stopping. OR I spend all week resenting go-mode and end up having empty days - no work, no rest. It's kind of dumb, isn't it? I want to rest, so I stop working but don't rest? I mean, come on Court, really? 
• I anticipate the next day or even the next week a lot. So I spend my free day thinking and planning and analyzing and scheduling. That is not restful. 

   So . . . what am I going to do about this?

   I don't know.


   Step 1: Get my husband on board. It's helpful to have an accountability buddy in stuff like this. Also, it would probably be good for him to expect that I won't be doing much on Saturdays (my Sabbath day). 
   Step 2: Try not to do any work on Saturday if at all possible. Clean and study and run errands and write serious things and all that kind of stuff on the first 6 days. In the future, avoid making commitments that require me to do things I consider "work" 7 days a week. 
   Step 3: Experiment with things that seem potentially restful.
   Step 4: Prayerfully adjust. In fact, prayerfully do the previous three steps because I have no idea what I'm doing here. 

   
   Thoughts? Suggestions? 

~ Court