Summary: <br> The story of the prodigal son tells of a son who betrayed his family, left home and got on the wrong path. Greed got the best of him. Wild living got the best of him. Maybe you can relate, but you probably can’t. Unless you’re one of the fortunate few who has royally screwed up their life then found their way back, then this story is for someone else.<br> You – well you haven’t ever made that huge, epic bad decision that made the 10 o’clock news. You’ve never been the disgrace of your family. You’ve never landed yourself face down in a pig pen like the prodigal son. And it’s about this time we get all puffed up in our pride and self-righteouness and declare we’re doing pretty darn good with our lives.<br> Ahhhhh, but wait. Isn’t the story of the prodigal son also about a child who strayed from the best? Isn’t this a story about someone who opted for instant gratification and paid a high price later. Oh yes, this is a story about us!<br> The story of you and I, the ones who have strayed from the best is found in Luke chapter 15, verses 11-32. Reading from The Message translation Jesus says:<br> “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me. So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had.”<br> And stop right there. I totally see me in this story. Do you see you? What gets us in trouble here is the “I want RIGHT NOW!” I want what I want and I want it right now. But typically what we can have right now is just a cheap imitation or a a slighted version of what would be available to us later if we stuck with it.<br> You can have it all, but you can’t have it all at once. How many times have you traded the greatness you could have in future for the taste of goodness you could have right now? And for many of us, it’s literally the TASTE we can have right now. So many of us have goals to be healthy. And it’s no big mystery, we know what we should and shouldn’t be doing. Oh we know, but we see what we want right now and we’re shoving our face in a bowl of something that goes directly against our goals. And then what happens … we regret it.<br> Regret is a high price to pay for that little piece of immediate gratification.<br> How many times have you bought something and regretted it? Our impulses get us in trouble, and in debt. The average American is in over their head in credit card debt, and you know what got them there … $20 here and $20 there. After one year we couldn’t even tell you what we bought, but we have a maxed out credit card with a minimum payment that’s eating us alive.<br> Hello … prodigal daughter here! I want right now what’s coming to me. I want right now to feel happy and all three of these cookies right here in my hand will make me happy. I want right now to have those new shoes and tomorrow I shall wear them with the new pants I’m going to buy to match them. Nope, I don’t have the money for either of them right now, but I want them right now.<br> And this is a story of how we stray from the best.<br> When God imagined you and the life you could have, then formed you with his own hands, he had the best in mind for you. All lined up and available to you, your name was on it. The best has always been yours and you could have it all, but you couldn’t have it all at once. There are some things you must wait for. There are some things that take time. There are some things you are simply not ready for.<br> The prodigal son wasn’t ready for immediate wealth. But he wanted it now, and so the father gave it to him and watched him stray from the best. He watched him waste it all.
