DailySusan Humor Blog

STICKING WITH A PRODIGAL

For this my son was dead,
and is alive again;
he was lost, and is found.
And they began to be merry.
-- Luke 15:24

There’s a fellow our age who left home after his high school graduation and has never been back. He has lived all over the world. He calls home occasionally. But for more than 30 years, his parents haven’t clapped eyes on him or been able to give him a hug.
He’s the Prodigal Son . . . on Steroids.
Now, there are SOME relatives you WISH would take a long, long trip like that. . .
. . . but there are others we love very much who, for whatever the reason, run away. They leave a trail of broken hearts, late-night phone calls, frantic searches, and endless tears.
They’re our prodigal sons and daughters: lost lambs, gone astray.
But here’s hope: when you love a prodigal, keep praying . . . and never give up.
See, there was this teenage boy, Kyle, from an excellent Christian family. He got involved with a bad crowd, and started messing around with drugs and alcohol. Boom! He got hooked, powerfully. It was as if he was paralyzed and couldn’t break free of self-destructive patterns.
His parents tried to correct him, but he became disobedient, argumentative and rebellious. The younger three children were terrorized. Everyone was miserable. It was heartbreaking.
The parents fasted. They prayed. They moved Kyle to different schools and even tried homeschooling. But he was on a different wavelength. They couldn’t communicate with him. He was becoming a stranger.
They finally became so frustrated that they “delegated” this problem to God. They admitted that they were at the end of their rope. Only God could save Kyle.
Then one day, they dropped him off at a Christian summer camp.
Little did they know, he was at the end of his rope, too.
That night, his dorm leader noticed him “sitting there kind of dead-pan,” and went over to talk to him. The band was too loud – ironic, eh? – so they walked over to the campground.
Tearfully, the truth poured out of Kyle. He admitted that he was running from God, but it had to stop. He admitted all the wrong he’d done.
He recommitted himself to Jesus Christ.
The youth worker said, “In a few moments, God just changed his life, in such a way that those of us who are trained could only hope to do in a lifetime of working with someone.”
That’s the Holy Spirit for you. Effortless! Irresistible! The harder the case, the more amazing the cure.
The youth leader said that for lots of prodigals, things have to get worse before they can get better. “They’ve got to hit rock bottom before they can look up,” he said.
Under his mentor’s wing, Kyle has come so far that he now is leading his friends to the Lord, too. He is so excited about what God is doing in his life that recently he knocked on his mentor’s door at 11:30 p.m., just to tell him something neat that had happened.
The process has taken about a year, with twists and turns. But today, Kyle is living happily at home, clean and sober. School is going well, college is ahead . . . and his parents call his mentor regularly and tell him he’s an answer to prayer.
He knows. But he’s humble.
“Prodigals do need people who’ll stick with them, and establish trust, and love them and confront them,” the minister said. “But we can’t ‘fix’ them. The church can’t ‘fix’ them. Nothing we can do is going to change a life.
“That’s what Jesus does.
“A lot of times, He facilitates it through relationships. But until there’s a heart change, the behavior won’t change permanently.”
What’s his advice for those who love prodigals? “Keep praying . . . and stick with them.”
So you know that guy we know, who’s been inexplicably estranged for 30 years? We’re putting him on notice: we’re praying for him, we’re sticking by him, and we’re trusting in God’s promises.
There’s a fatted calf back here with your name on it. See you soon! †