Whats your Story?

We constantly, consciously or sub consciously, build up the narrative of our own lives. We tell our own stories. We build up a narrative of an event. Our version of events and people. Based on what we know as well as what we do not know Probably the most familiar of the parables of Jesus just piping the Good Samaritan. is the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15. So we have man and his two sons. Evidently this man has a farm of some kind and is not short of money. His younger son asks for his inheritance now. His father gives him the capital freely. Now you maybe thinking why he give without strings? A good question. He must of known what his younger son was like and what might happen with the money. However the father loved his son so much he simply gave it away to him no questions asked and no strings attached. He let him take it and after all it is only money his son’s freedom was more important. What a dad! So our son packs all his things. You see from this we can picture that he had no intention of coming back. It probably was a hard life working the place and he wanted out. He wanted to enjoy himself and have a bit of fun. Well he had more than a bit of fun. He partied hard probably drinking to excess and having all sorts of other fun!! Well he had the money, why not? However his money was not spent well and it had all gone. Suddenly things were not so good they were hard. But it gets worse folks! A famine hit the land he was in and as a result everyone tightened their belt. He had no money and was hungry and needed food and water. So he hired himself out to locals and a pig farmer takes him on. It is a not pleasant work getting muddy and feeding the pigs their pods. He was so hungry he even considered eating the pods with them. All this gets him feeling wistful for the time he lived back with his father and he remembers how the workers used to be treated. They certainly fared better than he is now. So he resolves to go home and beg for forgiveness and work as a lowly servant for he considers now, at his lowest, he is not worthy anymore. He has squandered it all; everything his father gave him with love. So he is certainly not expecting the reaction he gets from his father. His father sees him from a distance. So he has obviously been hoping his younger son would come back! He runs to greet him. Yes folks he runs, so he is obviously enthusiastic to see his son. The father puts his arms around his younger son. The son says he is not worthy and a has sinned against God and his dad but his father asks for the best robe to be put around him. The best robe! This was certainly not the reception this young man was expecting from his father! Then his Dad says they should get the fatted calf and kill it and they will eat and celebrate the boys return!! The fatted calf was probably an animal kept ready for special occasions. One such occasion had come. The return of a lost son. So the son’s story was one where he had taken his inheritance and had blown it! He had hit rock bottom and was returning to a father he thought would see him as worthless, the bad penny who returned. The one for who love would not be forthcoming. That is his story. His father’s version of events was quite different. You are my son, returned to me. Once you were lost but now you are found. You have apologised and I am simply happy if not overjoyed to have you back!!. How often do we feel worthless? That we have not always lived as we should and yet like the father in the story God loves us simply because we come to him and confess. How many people are there in our society who need that acceptance and love in their lives? The drug addict, the homeless, those who self harm, those who cannot stand their bodies, those who feel unless they have lots of material things they will not be good enough, those who feel unless are really good academically or in the sporting field you will not be loved? I guess there are many who tell a similar story to the prodigal son. That’s their story but it is not Gods. If you will let him retell your story, he will say there is someone who has loved you ever since you were born. Who cares what you do in your life and who wills youto discover that love for yourself through the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. However the parable does end with this happy reunion! There is the other brother. The one who did not go away, the one who stayed and worked hard. When he hears his brother is back and being feted in this way he is not happy at all! Years of resentment have been obviously built up and it is comes out when he sees his father with venom. He accuses his brother of sleeping with harlots but we have no other confirmation of this and says he slaved away for the father and got nothing like the treating his younger brother is now getting after losing all that money. His use of the term slaved denotes his feelings. He has worked hard and remembers it and has not been noticed. He is proud and self righteous. He is similar to the Pharisees of Jesus’ day but despite that being his story it is not his fathers. His father appreciates all his son has done and says everything that is mine is yours. Do you ever slave away trying to do the right thing? Do you work hard for the church and sometimes often under your own strength and never ask for help? The father says all the elder son had to do was ask!!! We need to ask for Gods help in living our lives. Many people take on too much and suffer burnout and feel resentment that God did not help them but the trouble is they needed to ask. Sometimes our pride can be our worst enemy. Sometimes we need to rely on God to support us in doing his work for energy and wisdom we will need. Sometimes we also feel unnoticed and unappreciated but just as in the story God does notice us and values us and sometimes it is important to remember that too. So we all have a story to tell. For many years I thought I was unlikable and not very good. God broke through eventually and made me rethink my story. So what might God being saying to you about your story?