As I came out of Church this morning, I had a text message from a friend asking that I check my email. On Prodigal Son Sunday, I was so encouraged by the message that was waiting for me. I hope you are as inspired as I was to let go and listen.
Special thanks to my dear friend for sharing your story with me and others who will read this post:
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You may not feel fine now. You may feel stressed, uneasy, or just plain worried.
I am not the best Christian, or even a good Christian. Believe me, I’m not saying that to be humble. I’m saying it because it’s the truth. I was that guy in college who went out boozing my face off, sleeping till noon, skipping class, swearing like it was my job, barely going to church (once every 2 months), and quite frankly everything that goes along with that lifestyle.
But there is something I learned when I was at my darkest; by darkest I mean DARKEST! I was at an absolute loss of Hope, blubbering – uncontrollably crying – like a baby. As that period of darkness drew to an end, I learned that it does not matter how far away you are from God; when you need Him, He is right there to take care of you. He doesn’t skip a beat because He never left you.
This happened in another huge way a few years out of college. Everything was going wrong, people very close to me were sick and dying, I hated my job, I dreaded going into work, and my personal life was in shambles. While sitting at work, I stopped and started tearing up because I was just upset about everything in life. It was at that moment that I started praying and asking for help. Out of the blue I decided to listen to a Christian station, something I had never done before; I mean ever in my whole life. The first song that played was By Your Side by Tenth Ave North. Listening to the lyrics, everything I had just prayed about was talked about within the first 30 seconds of the song.
Does this mean that you keep doing what you’re doing and just go to God when things are bad? Not at all. This is just my journey so far. I also noticed that when I decided to let God take care of everything – rather than trying to make things go the way I thought they should go – life was so much sweeter than I could ever imagine.
What’s super interesting is that the idea and inspiration to write this came out of nowhere this morning. Coincidentally today the theme of liturgy is the prodigal son.
All it takes is for you to let go and listen!
– Anonymous