Day 25

“Make me like one of your hired men…”

It always looks so good in the ad:
The smiling handsome guy holding the glass of Scotch.
Or the way-too-cool-looking gigolo with a bevy of babes all around him hanging on him.

I used to stare at those commercials or sit transfixed over those advertisements and think, “That can never be me. I don’t do that. It’s not right…” But inside I was wishing I could because it looked so stinking fun!

You see, my upbringing gave a new meaning to the word tight. We didn’t dance, smoke, drink or hang out with people who did. Our house was alcohol and drug free. And all that “freedom” left me longing for the other life, the one I would never know. In high school, I was a joke as the kid who couldn’t dance and in college, I was mocked for being a “straight arrow”. I would go to some of the parties, mind you. But I would only watch… and wish.
So when I get to this point in the story, I find some comfort in being reminding that there was part of this story I didn’t see:
I didn’t see the other side of getting wasted.
I didn’t see the other side of “free sex”.
I didn’t see the other side of casual drug use.
Thanks to Jesus’ words I get to see the guy who did what I would only dream of doing. To watch the guy who just went for broke… and made it there! This poor guy ends up with more problems and less freedom than he had when he left his father’s house. Ironic, huh? He leaves to get free and ends up being demoted to hired hand. He leaves to get more life and ends up on the bottom of the ladder.
If only he could have trusted the Father. If only he could have listened to the wise counsel that tried to warn him that this “do your own thing” thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Yeah, I’ve got my share of regrets and mistakes to keep me humble. I am a professional Older Brother in many ways. But I am thankful God that there were some lessons I could learn through the lives of others. Even through the life of a willful prodigal who kicked off all the rules and ended up kicking himself all the way home.
“Lord, thanks for my parents, my teachers and my friends how pointed me in a right direction.
Keep me from being haughty and prideful because I didn’t have to face that particular pig-pen.
And give grace and mercy to those who didn’t have what I had and thus had to suffer what I didn’t.
And thank you, Father, for Christ, who meets us in whatever pig pen we’re in!”



Jeff Walling