THE PURSUIT OF FREEDOM

Reference: Luke 15:11-32

Today’s text is a familiar story: a young man who had the boldness to ask his father for his share of the inheritance before his father died. What we see  unfold are a series of actions and events that highlighted the impact of immaturity and poor character development on inheritances. This applies not only to material resources, but also to spiritual heritage and even natural talents.

The father’s house was intended to be that place where character was formed. That location from which sons were groomed to maturity, to the point where they were ready to handle and manage inheritances given to them. But as we read in “Luke  15:13 “And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.”

Like him, we find the father’s house burdensome and a limitation to our advancement and enjoyment: too many rules, too many checks, too much influence on us. Thus, in our pursuit of freedom, we break borders and wander into far away territories. Far from the control of the father, his influence, his chastisement, his correction, and his protection.

The outcome was obvious. Here is the lesson: ‘whenever our immaturity and pursuit of freedom takes us far from the presence of God, we are nothing but a disaster waiting to happen.’ But the father is ready to receive us should we return home.

#sly