The Other Son

"When you stop making yourself the hero of the story, you can begin to see your brokenness and the grace of God.”

Gosh, this is a brutally honest blog post. It’s been a long time coming. This has sat in my drafts for months because I just didn’t know how to say what was inside.

I’m not the most emotional guy in the world, but for some reason, the Lord found a way to soften my heart and expose my feelings with a familiar story I have heard my whole life.

September rolled around and I stumbled onto the story of the Prodigal Son. I almost flipped past it because I have heard and read this story like 1,000 times. I just didn’t feel like reading it. But the Lord kept bringing me back to it. It was one of those situations where the Lord just keeps placing it in front of me. David Marvin, one of my favs, had just released a RightNow Media Series about it so I figured I would watch it. Little did I know, I was about to get the wind knocked out of me.

David’s teaching kept going past what any pastor had ever taught me. Even as a youth pastor, I always quit paying attention to the story after the prodigal son came home.

There was a second son. You see, I never really related to the story of the prodigal son because I wasn’t that “rebel” child. I might as well be the second brother in the story. The brother that never gets talked about wasn’t even rebellious. Even worse, he was prideful. He was insecure. He was selfish.

I think this opened my eyes to a lot of things. To be honest, if you are reading this, chances are you relate closely to one of the two sons: rebellious or prideful. (If you don’t relate to either, I would love to take you out for a cup of coffee to learn from you.)

What God did in this story was absolutely incredible. He knew His audience. Who was His audience? I’m glad you asked. It was you and I. More specifically, it was the tax collectors and the Pharisees.

Most of the time we pick people like David to relate to so we can talk about how we “slay giants” or how we are a “man after God’s own heart.” Very rarely are we humble enough to admit that we sometimes closest relate to the Pharisees and Tax Collectors.

When you stop making yourself the hero of the story, you can begin to see your brokenness and God’s goodness.

Don’t beat yourself up. In fact, “come home”. My favorite part of this story is the fact that the Father ran to His child. What a beautiful image. The Father never stops pursuing us.

Picture it… the rebel son far off in the distance. Without hesitation, the Father sprints towards him.

Now picture this… a party being thrown to celebrate the lost son who returned home. People laughing and dancing and celebrating. Where is the Father? Pursuing His other son. In the midst of his pride and jealousy, the Father is near.

In both situations, the Father’s heart could have been filled with anger, neglect, or hatred. Instead, the Father chose COMPASSION.

Marvin said something in this study I could not stop thinking about…

“The Father wanted more for His sons than they wanted for themselves.” - DM

Wherever you are when you are reading this— God wants more for you. Stop telling yourself that you deserve neglect… that you deserve pain… Do you want the truth? You and I both deserve so much worse. We deserve separation from Christ.

Jesus shattered the idea of separation when He chose to send His Son to Calvary’s hill.

I would agree with David Marvin on this one… Let’s change the name of the story to stop making us the hero. This isn’t about the Prodigal Son. This is the story of the Prodigal Father.

Prodigal: spending resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant

I am so thankful my God is recklessly extravagant.

I am so thankful my Jesus is irrationally graceful.

I am so thankful my Father’s heart was filled with compassion when I deserved separation.

THIS IS FOR SOMEONE TONIGHT.

My prayer for this blog post is that someone would realize that God is recklessly pursuing them. God is actively pursuing every single one of us with the sole mission of showing us grace and compassion through His free gift of forgiveness and salvation. It’s so vast. It’s constant. It’s never changing. It’s for you and I. All you have to do is accept it.

Until next time,

-LM