prodigal

Confessions of a Thrift-aholic

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One of my favorite pastimes is going to Goodwill or ThriftSmart. I’m a fan of any kind of thrift stores, but those just so happen to be the closest ones to where I live.

It can be hit or miss. Some days, I won’t find anything remotely interesting. Sometimes, I might pick up one or two items that pique my interests. Today, I came home with an armload of treasures.

I found a book I’d been wanting to read for a while. It’s called Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith by Russ Ramsey. After I brought it home, I discovered it was autographed.

I also picked up a video series on Learning to Love the Psalms by W. Robert Godfrey. I recently took a class at my church on praying through the Psalms, so this will be something beneficial. Plus, it’s put out by Ligonier Ministries, so I’m sure it will be really good.

I found a blu-ray of a movie I’ve been wanting to watch for a while called The Commitments, about a ragtag band in Ireland in the 60s who do 60s soul classics. I remember the language being a bit blue, but I think the music should be fantastic.

I also snagged a Memphis Showboats hat. It’s not the original 80s incarnation, but I do really like the blue and yellow colors, plus I can represent my hometown.

I guess I love thrifting because of what you find in the least likely places. I think God’s grace is a lot like that. It shows up when you least expect it but when you most need it. I read somewhere that God’s nature is always to give above and beyond what we deserve. You might even say that God gives prodigally and lavishly — almost to a wasteful extent because of how little we often appreciate the gifts or give thanks for them.

Above all, I think that thrifting helps me to see value in what the world says is worthless. Those things that show up at a thrift store because someone thought they were trash can end up being someone else’s treasure. So it is for God and God’s people.

Prone to Wander

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“Robert Robinson had been saved out of a tempestuous life of sin through George Whitfield’s ministry in England. Shortly after that, at the age of twenty-three, Robinson wrote the hymn, ‘Come, Thou Fount. Come, Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing, Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise’.

Sadly, Robinson wandered far from those streams and like the Prodigal Son, journeyed into the distant country of carnality. Until one day—he was traveling by stagecoach and sitting beside a young woman engrossed in her book. She ran across a verse she thought was beautiful and asked him what he thought of it. ‘Prone to wander— Lord, I feel it— Prone to leave the God I love’. Bursting into tears Robinson said, ‘Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.’

Although greatly surprised, she reassured him that the ‘streams of mercy’ mentioned in his song still flowed. Mr. Robinson was deeply touched. Turning his ‘wandering heart’ to the Lord, he was restored to full fellowship” (Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories).

I love a good back story, especially when it comes to how hymns were composed. It’s no coincidence that the very words Robert Robinson penned were exactly the words he needed to hear when he had wandered from his faith. God used his own words to speak to him and woo him back.

God still speaks to us in a variety of ways, but primarily through His word. I think so many of us — me included — will go through the day with our Bibles closed and wonder why we haven’t heard from God.

I remember when I got my very first Bible as a first grader, the pastor wrote in the inside of the cover, “This Book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”

How true that has been. We need God’s word and God’s people around us to help us find the way back when we’ve wandered. We may be prone to wander, but God is always faithful to bring His wayward child back.

Coming Home

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“Isn’t it right to join in the celebration and be happy? This is your brother we’re talking about. He was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found again!” (Luke 15:32).

Editor’s Note: I still have The Crud, compete with intermittent coughing spells, so forgive me for any typographical errors I made while I was in the middle of hacking up one of my lungs. Hopefully, I’ll be better soon.

Every one of us has been a prodigal at some point. Every one of us.

Not all of us have run away to a far country to waste our lives and money on scandalous living.

Some of us have stayed at home and been just as far away from the Father.

As my pastor Mike Glenn reminded me today, lostness isn’t a matter of geography as much as it is of relationship.

All of us wander off in our affections and in our priorities. All of us.

All of us at some point will have that awakening when we come to ourselves and realize just how far away we’ve gotten.

It’s not Jesus who was lost. I was. You were. We were. Jesus found us. That’s the story of the Gospel. That’s my hope.

Some of you are praying for prodigals in your life who still haven’t come home yet. Some of you are the prodigals still out in the far country, ashamed and embarrassed to admit defeat and start the journey homeward.

Remember that God is the Father who never turns away any prodigals who come back in true repentance and faith. This is the God who doesn’t wait for us to get to Him. He runs after us while we’re still a long way down the road.

Every one of us at some point will be a prodigal again. It’s in our nature to wander and it’s in God’s nature to bring us back.

That will never not be good news to me.

The end.

 

 

Vulgar Grace: Final Thoughts on All is Grace

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“My life is a witness to vulgar grace — a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wage as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party, no ifs, ands, or buts. A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief’s request — ‘Please, remember me’ — and assures him, ‘You bet!’…This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion. It works without asking anything of us. It’s not cheap. It’s free, and as such will always be a banana peel for the orthodox foot and a fairy tale for the grown-up sensibility. Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try and find something or someone that it cannot cover. Grace is enough. He is enough. Jesus is enough” (Brennan Manning).

I think grace offends most of us because we’re all about the American work ethic and pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps and earning our own way and yada, yada, yada. Grace says that no, you did not earn God’s love but you got it anyway. Grace says that what you do deserve is exactly what you don’t get and be thankful for that.

I will love grace as long as I live because without it, I wouldn’t be alive. I wouldn’t be anything at all.

I hope that I can come close to writing about grace as well as Brennan Manning did. Of course, I’d rather not go through a lifetime of alcoholism and all the destruction it wrought in his life. But there are no convenient and easy paths when it comes to dispensing grace to others. It’s much easier to wish karma on to those who hurt others or (especially) us. Karma may appeal more to our ideas of justice, but when it comes to love, grace always wins hands down.

So, go read this book. I’ve even provided a link for you to go directly to amazon’s page to buy it. So there are no more excuses.

http://www.amazon.com/All-Grace-Ragamuffin-Brennan-Manning/dp/1434764184/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430101511&sr=8-1&keywords=all+is+grace

“Now there’s no more crowds and no more lights,
still all is grace.
Now my eyes are wrapped in endless night,
still all is grace.
Now I pace the dark and sleep the day,
yet I still can hear my Father say –
‘all is grace’.

It was easy as a younger man
To squander in the far off land
Where sin is sin, like black is black.
But the older brother sin is white,
this doubt that creeps me up at night –
‘does Jesus love me still?’

Now I take my meds and hear the game,
still all is grace.
Now old friends drop in and bless my name,
still all is grace.
Now a prodigal I’ll always be
yet still my Father runs to me.
All is grace.”

Things Lost and Found

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Recently, a few of my things have gone missing (including quite possibly my mind). Here they are:

1) My very purple Camelbak water bottle
2) My Lowepro camera case that serves as an iPhone 5 case
3) My sanity
4) Until recently, my little book on the Biltmore Estates

I don’t know if you’ve ever lost anything or had it go missing. If so, congratulations! You’re now part of a select few who know how frustrating it can be to look everywhere you know to look and not be able to find it. It can be almost maddening.

I’m thinking about the stories Jesus told about people who lost things and who went to great lengths to find them. He spoke about a lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son.

Those of us who have known loss can relate to the shepherd leaving his 99 sheep to find the one, to the woman tearing her house apart to locate that coin, and especially to the father anxiously peering down that dusty road in hopes of seeing his wayward son returning home.

The point of each story is how God the Father went to such great lengths to search us out and find us when we were lost. Not that He for one moment lost sight of us or where we were. But we had.

I’m glad that God didn’t give up on finding me like I have a few times. There were a couple of times when I found the missing object when I was looking for something else. But that’s another story for another day.

My point is to not give up on those missing people in your life or even those AWOL objects. Heck, I’ve even prayed about a few of my lost possessions.

Sometimes, I’ve even known what it’s like to lose my way or even lose myself for a while. You’ve done the same. But God is far more eager for us to find ourselves and get back to our true calling than even we are.

I love that about God.

So, if you got anything out of this rambling narrative, it’s this: don’t give up on what’s lost, even if it’s you. That’s all.

10 Years Later

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SONY DSC

In all the hoopla of gift-giving and gift-getting (not forgetting all the food-eating and dessert-eating), I almost forgot a very important anniversary.

It was 10 years to the day on December 24 that my beloved cat, Lucy, came home again after getting out and having an adventure. A very un-Hobbitlike adventure.

She somehow managed to get out and get lost on December 22. All the frantic searching in the world on the next day produced nothing. I vividly remember being distraught and very emotional. I had all but given up hope of ever seeing her again.

We had put up flyers all over the neighborhood. These flyers had her name, age, description, approximate weight, and a black-and-white photo. Apparently, on December 24, the mailman recognized the picture and informed us that she was taking up residence in a neighbor’s garage down the street.

I can imagine her trotting up to a strange lady and saying something like, “I’ve lost my family. Will you be my family?” Of course, this isn’t Narnia, so she wouldn’t actually say these things, but it would all be implied by her meowings.

Apparently, she got rained on a bit, got her nose scraped a bit, and had a few traumatic events, but came out of it the same old weird, goofy cat she’d always been.

I got her back on Christmas Eve. That remains my best gift.

She’s had a few other adventures since then, including a cancer scare which she thankfully survived.

Thinking back on the whole thing, I’m reminded that for those who want to come home, there’s always a way. Even more so with God.

No one who wants to find God, earnestly and truly, and know Him will be denied. All who seek Him in truth find Him and find at the same time that really He was the one seeking them. He was the one pursuing them and wooing them. The only way we ever find and love God is that He first finds and loves us.

And that goes for all the prodigals out there. The Father still waits and looks down the road for those who want to come home. Better than that, He already knows where you are and is whispering the way home to your heart. There is always a way back and a way home.

My reward is that I’ve gotten 10 years of feline therapy and free cat-scans. Your reward for seeking God isn’t as much the gifts and blessings from God, but God Himself. That’s still the best part.

I Believe, I Believe. It’s Silly, But I Believe

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I love the little girl in Miracle on 34th Street. She’s like me and so many others who really and truly want to believe but seem to be running low on faith.

Sometimes, faith IS believing in things when common sense tells you not to. Faith really is the art of believing still even after circumstances and life events haven’t gone your way.

Maybe you’re single with no hope of a spouse in sight, yet you cling tenaciously to a slender thread of faith.

Maybe you’re married to an unbelieving spouse and it’s all you can do to mouth the words ” All things are possible” when it comes to your mate’s salvation.

Maybe it’s a wayward prodigal child or an illness that lingerd. Maybe it’s a dead end job that makes you feel like you’re living a dead end life. Maybe it’s just a general sense of hopelessness and despair.

There’s wisdom in that little girl’s mantra. Good things come to those who keep waiting and hoping. God’s best comes to those who refuse to quit despite everyone else telling them to give up.

I don’t know your specifics or your situation, but I do know God. He hasn’t broken a promise yet or failed to keep His Word. Ever.

Faith isn’t so much holding on to God, but being firmly convinced that He’s holding on to you with everything He’s got and He won’t let go.

We believe, Lord. Help our unbelief.

Amen.

Lost and Found

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Today, I found an old poster I made. It was when Lucy my cat got out on the day before Christmas Eve and got lost and I couldn’t find her for 2 days. I was a wreck, emotionally and physically and in every other way. But as I sit here typing, I can see her giving herself a bath. It’s been almost 9 years ago, but she’s still around and none the worse for wear, save a tiny scar on her nose and a few extra pounds.

I had just about given up hope of ever finding her again. I would look at pictures of her on my computer and bawl like a baby. I really thought she was gone for good.

But today I was reminded that I too was lost once. Maybe not as dramatically, but I was lost. Then Jesus found me. I know I’ve taken that for granted for far too long, but today I am especially grateful that he did.

It doesn’t matter if you’re 7, like I was, or 77. If you feel lost, you can know the feeling of what it means to be found again. You can know that not only is someone out there looking for you, but that Someone has found you and is calling you back home.

Lucy is 12 now. She’s a bit slower and she sleeps more now. But I’m still thankful that she’s still around. I still think finding her again on Christmas Eve was my best Christmas present.

I’m also thankful that Jesus has still got me. He’s not letting go. He won’t let me get lost again, even though I may still try at times to run away. He promised not to leave or forsake me.

Here’s a prayer for all the prodigals in your life. May they hear the call of their Father and find their way home. I’m glad I did once.