Wastefully Extravagant: The Story of the Prodigal Father

I’ve been thinking about the prodigal.  And it’s not who or what you think.

During a long conversation recently, while sharing my heart with someone I love, I was overwhelmed by the sweetness of God.  I will never get over how tender the Lord is in drawing people, how deeply He loves them.  He’s never a sledgehammer to those whom He’s reaching for.  He might be a bright, blinding light, but never a wounding, knockout blow—not to those whose heart is toward Him.

I recently heard Bishop Jeff Arnold say that the only thing that really changed in Saul of Tarsus was his vision of who Jesus was.  Initially, he saw Jesus as a quack, a confidence man, a charlatan, out to snake-oil a few gullible Jews into following after His new ‘cult’.  That’s why he persecuted with such fervor—he truly believed himself to be a defender of the faith.  But in a moment, meeting Jesus in the dazzling light of the Damascus Road, he was confronted with not just the LIGHT of truth—but the VISION to comprehend it, though completely blind for 3 days—his vision changed forever, along with his name.

Saul became Paul.  And with his change of vision, the world changed forever.

Jesus is in the business of transforming people.  He is already well aware of our flaws, our shortcomings, our missteps, and our epic fails.  Nevertheless, He longs to change our vision, and show us that ne can make something beautiful out of nothing.

Proverbs 2:3-9 NKJV

Yes, IF you cry out for discernment,
And lift up your voice for understanding,
⁴ IF you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
⁵ THEN you will understand the fear of the Lord,
And find the knowledge of God.
⁶ For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
⁷ He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
⁸ He guards the paths of justice,
And preserves the way of His saints.
⁹ Then you will understand righteousness and justice,
Equity and every good path.

So, IF we apply ourselves to seek the Lord, the way one would search for hidden treasures—WE will FIND the knowledge of God.

Note that it doesn’t say, “If they never make a mistake,” OR “If they come from a long line of preachers,” OR “If they’ve never walked away.”

            It says, IF we will:

·      Cry out for discernment

·      Lift up our voice for understanding

·      Seek for wisdom like silver

·      Search as for hidden treasures

            THEN we would understand the fear of the Lord.  THEN we would understand.  The seeking and the searching precede the finding and the understanding.  That tells me we don’t have to have it all together, we just have to desire it more than anything else—and go after it.  God will do the rest.

Let’s say you once had a relationship with God—and circumstances led you to a place where, when faced with the choice to stay or go—you left.  Walked away.  Made choice after terrible choice, all in an effort to drown out the still, small voice of God.  Maybe for a time, you justified your choice, feeling vindicated, rationalizing your decision.  You thought that, if you could just get away from the church, you’d feel free.

I’m guessing though, at some point, like the son in Luke 15, who squandered his interitance, you came to yourself, and wondered, “Is THIS all that there is?”

That wayward son initially didn’t appreciate the value of his inheritance.  Often, he is referred to as “the prodigal son.”  The word prodigal is defined as wastefully extravagant.  While the story focuses on the dissolute, ‘riotous’ living that the son engaged in, as he recklessly frittered away his money at an alarming rate, the real ‘star’ of the story, if you will, is the Father.

The Father is the REAL ‘prodigal.’  When you consider his response when his son returned to the fold—He became “wastefully extravagant” in His response.  He is so overcome with joy that His boy would finally come to himself, and recognize the beautiful life he once possessed, the precious relationships he had taken for granted.  It took a stint in the sty, envying the menu the pigs were feasting upon, for this young man to realize the true value of what he had forfeited—all for a large, fleeting chunk of change.

But he did realize.  And when he returns, instead of the sharp rebuke and the cold shoulder he is expecting, instead of the demotion from sonship to servanthood, which he sees as the best outcome he could possibly expect—his Father welcomes him with open arms.  Dad pulls out all the stops, and throws the party of the century, in celebration of His beloved son’s return.  It’s truly the tale of the prodigal Father—who, in a wastefully extravagant way, pours out His lavish love upon one who returns.

Here is the thing:

            All you have to do is CRY OUT.

            All you have to do is LIFT YOUR VOICE.

            All you have to do is ASK FOR DISCERNMENT and UNDERSTANDING.

            All you have to do is SEEK and SEARCH for His wisdom for the TREASURE that it is.

It’s not conditional on your PERFECTION.  It IS directly proportional to your PASSION and PURSUIT.

It’s not attached to your INTELLEGENCE.  It IS an attribute of your INTEGRITY.

This tells me He’s not looking at our resumé. He’s looking at our personal responsibility in seeking out the wisdom He has offered to share.  HIS wisdom.  Not ours.

Don’t misunderstand: it is our job to lay down the worldly things that distract us from our calling, that delay our destiny.  But as long as we purpose to make the pursuit of His Kingdom our life’s work, with the understanding that we will never be completely finished until the day we stop breathing, He can start—or restart—our journey from wherever we find ourselves.  And according to Ecclesiastes 3:11, He has made everything beautiful, IN HIS TIME.  According to Joel 2:25, He restores the years that the locust has eaten.  In Proverbs 3:12, it tells us He corrects those He loves.  John 15:15 says He calls us His friends, and 2 Corinthians 5:17 says He makes us new creatures.

The point here is: He is well able to take the thing you’ve created, no matter how messy, no matter how far away it is from the life God intended for you, and without breaking a sweat, He can turn it into something beautiful.  Let Him change your VISION of your destiny.

The Prodigal Father is waiting to pour His love on YOU.  And He will be wastefully extravagant.  Just you wait and see.