Taking a chance
Sometimes when I hear familiar
passages from the Gospels, I think we've got it all wrong. For example, take
the story of the Prodigal Son. It seems pretty straightforward. Squander your
livelihood, and you'll end up crawling back begging for forgiveness.
Yet, having read this story for
years, I’ve finally come to realize a different interpretation. I think the
story is really about each one of us, and how God gives us an inheritance and
sets us free to follow the desires of our hearts. The message is not that such
adventure is sinful, but that not all adventures turn out right. Best of all,
God does not expect us to get it right the first time. Instead, God waits for
us every time. God is there when we need to return
and think again. Furthermore, if the prodigal had never gone away and seen life
from a different perspective, he would never have come to really know his
father. Knowing that father took the honesty of acknowledging he'd made a
mistake. And as the story so dramatically portrays, the Father didn't love him
less for that, but more.
I sometimes think our tidied up
religion keeps us from seeing the reality of life. We cannot live within a
structure that keeps us from all harm. That isn't living; that is slavery. To
venture forth means to deal with life as it really is, with choices that may
not turn out well, and decisions that need revisiting. And at some point, we
will find ourselves “robbed,” we will end up on a dead end road, and we will feel
betrayed by what we thought was our own best selves. But that is not the end of
story (like time now to crawl back and beg for forgiveness). As the story tells
us, that is a part of our journey.
I know only too many who, for fear
of making a mistake, continue in a false life. They live according to what others
tell them, and do not risk change because it is an “unknown.” Such lives offer
no challenges. They progress on "more of the same." A life with security, but no
growth, where expectations can be met, and no surprise will throw them off
guard. Yet, they are some of the most unhappy people I know.
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