The Incongruent Believer

I’m stuck, I have to admit it, but I am stuck!!   Sitting here typing this I am reminded of the Stealers Wheelers song, ‘ Stuck in the Middle’ with You,  and looking at the lyrics of that song I am drawn to the lyric, particularly the first and last line: Losing control, yeah, I'm all over the place, Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.   I am all over the place, and at times I lose control. It’s a real struggle! One of the things I struggle with is church, something that has been pivotal to my struggle because of my experience of it and that could make the second line relevant: church as I have experienced it is full of the loveliest, most genuine people. But it is also full of others not so lovely and much less genuine. I might not go so far as to call them “clowns” or “jokers”, but they are the kind of people that when things get tough, ‘you know who your friends are’. I have mostly come to terms w...

I wrote in the first part of this blog that, “Believers often speak of their “wilderness  experience” but this rarely equates to experience as a Prodigal.” However, I do believe that the journey of a prodigal back to the father can mean that one inhabits the “wilderness” for a time. We can either get stuck there – by choice or circumstance - or are just journeying through, and neither context makes that sojourn any easier. Whatever, my situation, I believe that I am here in the wilderness at the moment, and that is a significant challenge. I was struck by the clarity with which a sermon spoke to me recently; it was about the Israelites and their troubled journey out of Egypt focusing on Exodus 14 (parting the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s comeuppance). What I got from that was a better sense of where I am in my journey as a “Prodigal”: I have chosen to leave the slavery of this world behind to begin a journey to the promised land and a new life, yet I dwell in the wilderness, pursued...

There have been hundreds of commentaries and books written, and countless numbers of sermons preached, on the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32). What is common across a majority of the work done to unpack this parable is that it is nearly always told from the perspective of an observer, from behind the veil, or looking out of the kingdom into a broken world at the “Prodigal”. Believers often speak of their “wilderness experience” but this rarely equates to experience as a Prodigal. One other significant point that I believe is often overlooked is that the Prodigal was  in  his father’s house, to interpret this; he was part of God’s kingdom, saved and sure of his inheritance! Further, he didn’t drift away, didn’t lose interest, didn’t get distracted by something else, but forcefully (some say) and deliberately chose to leave God’s kingdom to pursue a time of indulgence and revelry. Other points in the story are no less shocking; the Prodigal was the younger son, and...