The TMP Podcast
I Am Nothing More Than My Worst Moment | Brian Kauste | Identity Theft
Jesus tells a parable about two sons in Luke 15. The younger son decides he wants his share of the father’s inheritance so that he can go off to the far country. This was a huge social taboo, as an inheritance is not meant to be divide until your parents passed away. The younger son in demanding his share and turning it into cash was flouting convention, ignoring his God given responsibility to care for his father and mother and, more than that insulting his father saying in effect: I wish you were dead. To compound this failure, the younger son parties away all his money and falls into hard times. His actions lead him into hunger and desperation due to a famine. It is tempting to think that the identity of the younger son is nothing more than his worst moment. But we must remember that failure is an event, never a person. The great temptation is to use our obvious failures and disappointments in our lives to convince ourselves that we are really not worth being loved. But for a person of faith the opposite is true. The many failures may open that place in us where we have nothing to brag about but everything to be loved for. The Good News of Jesus is that our identity is not bound to our worst moments. We are God’s children. And like the younger son— it is never too late to come home.
Jesus tells a parable about two sons in Luke 15. The younger son decides he wants his share of the father’s inheritance so that he can go off to the far country. This was a huge social taboo, as an inheritance is not meant to be divide until your parents passed away. The younger son in demanding his share and turning it into cash was flouting convention, ignoring his God given responsibility to care for his father and mother and, more than that insulting his father saying in effect: I wish you were dead. To compound this failure, the younger son parties away all his money and falls into hard times. His actions lead him into hunger and desperation due to a famine. It is tempting to think that the identity of the younger son is nothing more than his worst moment. But we must remember that failure is an event, never a person. The great temptation is to use our obvious failures and disappointments in our lives to convince ourselves that we are really not worth being loved. But for a person of faith the opposite is true. The many failures may open that place in us where we have nothing to brag about but everything to be loved for. The Good News of Jesus is that our identity is not bound to our worst moments. We are God’s children. And like the younger son— it is never too late to come home.