So yesterday was a kicker for us all. It was startling to roll through a parable most of us have heard since childhood and have it drop us to our knees. If you were not at Brentwood Sunday then download Run P3 and/or read the book The Prodigal God by Tim Keller. You will begin to understand and apply Christianity with new clarity and discover your perspective in the Parable of the Lost Son.

Here’s a quick recap. All of us seek to be happy, fulfilled and connect with God (or our idea of god) on two dead-end pathways:

1) Self-discovery Pathway: The “younger brother” took this one in Jesus’ story. Like him, we leave God’s way to try and discover right and wrong, good and bad on our own. Essentially, we want to receive God’s vitality, but not His guidance or leadership in our life. As Keller suggest, we want the “father’s stuff,” but not the “father’s heart.” Going this direction alienates us from God volitionally and leads to self-destruction and despair. And yet, even in our lost state, God runs after us with compassion and forgiveness.

2) Moral Conformity Pathway: Jesus shows the “elder brother” took this path in his story. This brother lived on his father’s estate and obeyed him, but did so with “joyless, fear-based compliance.” In the “elder brother’s” actions we are shown a person who conforms to moral and religious “goodness,” but only to try and control God, not to actually know and reflect His heart. If we walk in the this brother’s steps then we feel like God owes us certain things in life, because of our “goodness.” And, we become angry with God when we can’t control Him. This path alienates us from God because of pride in our so-called “goodness” and the bitterness it generates. But still, God comes to us, like the father in the story, and pleads for us to see His heart and join the party He’s throwing.

Both pathways are wrong and sin-driven, and yet God loves and seeks us on either one.

To my surprise, yesterday I met and prayed with more “elder brothers” than “younger brothers”; must be the reality of living in Lynchburg and not NYC. With that, I could see myself relating to both pathways at different points in my life.

So I think the entire morning became another jarring reminder of why we all need Jesus Christ to rescue us from either “brother” that lives inside our hearts. We can’t be our own Savior.

So let’s be a church that walks the better pathway, the one Jesus Christ clears for us. Let’s obey the Father because we love and know Him. Let’s receive His reward, but also go out of our way to give it to everyone we encounter.