Never thought I would be able to have 2 posts within two days. I have wanted to read the book The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning for quite a while now. I decided to bring it to Africa, because I thought that I just might have the time to do that. We went on our other Mozambique trip last week, and with tons of hours in the car, I manage to read the whole book on very bumpy dirt roads. God has bless me with the gift of not getting carsick while riding and reading on these roads. This most is mostly just an excerpt from the book. I have read the story in the bible of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), but the way Manning explains it in the book made me look at the story in a whole new light.
“When the prodigal son limped home from his lengthy binge of waste and wandering, boozing and womanizing, his motives were mixed at best. He said to himself, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have all the food they want and more, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father’ (v.17-18). The ragamuffin stomach was churning with compunction because he had broken his father’s heart. He stumbled home simply to survive. His sojourn in a far country had left him bankrupt. The days of wine and roses had left him dazed and disillusioned. The wine soured and the roses withered. His declaration of independence had reaped an unexpected harvest: not freedom, joy, and new life but bondage, gloom, and a brush with death. His fair-weather friends had shifted their allegiance when his piggy bank emptied. Disenchanted with life, the wastrel weaved his way home, not from a burning desire to see his father, but just to stay alive.
For me (Manning), the most touching verse in the entire Bible is the father’s response: ‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him’ (v.20). I am moved that the father didn’t cross-examine the boy, bully him, lecture him on ingratitude, or insist on any high motivation. He was so overjoyed at the sight of his son that he ignored all the canons of prudence and parental discretion and simply welcomed him home. The father took him back just as he was.
What a word of encouragement, consolation, and comfort! We don’t have to sift our hearts and analyze our intentions before returning home. Abba just wants us to show up. We don’t have to tarry at the tavern until purity of heart arrives. We don’t have to be shredded with sorrow or crushed with contrition. We don’t have to be perfect or even very good before God will accept us. We don’t have to wallow in guilt, shame, remorse, and self-condemnation. Even if we still nurse a nostalgia for the far country, Abba falls on our neck and kisses us.
Even if we come back because we couldn’t make it on our own, God will welcome us. He will seek no explanations about our sudden appearance. He is glad we are there…” (189-190)
Upon wandering off, and returning back to the Father, He is not going to ask you about where all you have been and why you have not been in the center of His will. He is going to embrace and be overjoyed that you have decided to return. Many times, personally at least, I feel as though I must first get things and all sorted out and then bring them before the Father. It’s okay with Him if we bring our broken, bruised-up self. He will still pick us up to hug us and He will provide all the healing we need. I encourage you that if you haven’t been in the embrace of the Father in a while, that it’s okay to return even now. He’s waiting for you, and while you are still a long ways off, He will see you just as the father saw the prodigal son. And He will run to you, and He will embrace you and kiss you, and more than anything else, He will be glad that you are home.
No comments :
Post a Comment