Broke

Stories are a great way to look at the world. I've heard it said that stories are all we have...all we are. Perhaps it is true. We certainly relate to stories. We remember times in our lives in the context of a story. We remember our first romance, first love, and first kiss. We remember when things went well. We remember when things went bad. We remember struggles and victories and we remember them all as a part of our story.

Jesus was a masterful story teller. The power of his stories still stay with us today. Last week, we looked at the beginning of one of his stories. It was a parable - a story with a spiritual meaning. It was about a father and his two sons. It started like this.

Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. (Luke 15:11-13 NIV)

Last week we left when the son asked for his share of the estate and the property and the father divided the property between them. Now, we see the son leaving home and going off to a distant country. In the distant country, he ends up broke. The distant country always leaves us broke. When we leave our Father for a distant country, we end up broke, too.

So, how about you? Have you left the Father? Did you go to a distant country? Did it leave you spiritually bankrupt? Did you end up broke?