The Selfishness of the Prodigal Son

I'm listening to Keith Green's Prodigal Son Suite (which is beautiful, if you've never listened to it, and you should open it in a second tab while reading), and was reminded of something that I've wondered for a while, something that I've never heard anyone mention. When the son gets done enjoying all the things he wasn't allowed to do while growing up, all of a sudden finds that he has neither money nor friends remaining, he also finally takes a good look at his surroundings. All of a sudden, he realizes that everybody else is suffering under the effects of a severe famine. Like, hello dude, were you that ignorant to what was going around? Surely you must have noticed the hike in food prices, or the decrease in wine quality of late. Or the increase in beggars? But of course, you were too busy partying and enjoying yourself to give money away.

I sort of wonder if it might not be the hidden message in the story. There are plenty of sermons on the love of the Father for us, or what the Older vs. Younger brother thing at the end means, but never a thought to the rest of the parabolic land still suffering. Certainly Jesus wants us to know that the Father is abounding in mercy and forgiveness, and we can go as crazy-rebellious as can be imagined, but repentance will still get us a place in the house, and a celebratory feast. But he also subtly reminds us to look around, and realize that we might be only a step away from having to sell our labor for a share in the pigs' meal.

If I am correct in saying that America (and much of the First World, as well as the wealthy everywhere) sins collectively through flagrant materialism--and the churches are sometimes the most conspicuous in this--then perhaps the hidden message from the Prodigal Son is this: a reminder that a desire to give our hearts away to God is not enough. He desires that we be perfect, and sell our possessions, give to the poor, make our treasure entirely in heaven, and then come follow Him. The wedding feast is open to us when we have nothing.

I'm not always quite sure how to put the desire to follow into tangible action, so if you have any ideas, let's work them out together!

To finish, as a quick reminder to turn your head and take a look at the world, here's a good BBC article about the current famine situation in Africa. It may be across an ocean, but if you're a Christian, then you're called to care, because these people are Jesus. If you ignore the least of these, guess who you're ignoring? Just sayin'....


(Picture grabbed from here: http://www.scienceclarified.com/scitech/Genetics/The-Age-of-Genetics.html)
Verses: Mt 19:16-30, Lk 14:7-24, 15:11-32.

Day at the beach.

The sun, blinding,
gone.
The grey rumblings, threat of summer downpour, are mostly behind, stayed by oceanic breezes. The threat is reiterated; Zeus and Thor matching their skills, shrouded in puffs and billows. The pitter-patter begins, birds croaking to one another, the wet smell permeating the air (watery firmament). Small, pattering fairy stomps on the blanket around me, the back of my ear, my sheet of paper. A flash to the right, distant lightning keeping its place on the other side of the Waterway.
My words are wet, my back is wet--time to cover up the notebook.

To the beach.

I laughed like a fool when I saw Mr. Bean's Holiday. My friend Valerie would agree. She didn't appreciate my laughing.

Anytime I think about going "to the beach", I think about the movie. Bean. Sabine. Bean. Sabine. BeanSabine. BeanSabineBeanSabineBeanSabinebeansabinebeansabinebeansabinebeansabinebeansabine...

So hilarious. One of my favourite Bean moments is getting his passport checked, and he has to make this awful face in order to match the picture so the customs person knows it's him. Brilliant.

Anyways, I'm going to the beach. First to a birthday party for my friend Chris, and then to the beach with a few friends. I'm super excited, because I finally found my camera charger and can therefore take pictures, which is pretty crucial. I need to pack things at some point, and write down directions so I can zip off. To the beach.

This is my beach song. Yo soy playerooooo, pero no hay playa (meaning "I'm a beachgoer, but there's no beach"). Just fun.

So go watch all those links. Now.

On Canker Sores

Owwww.

Faith

I'm reading Mark.

I've actually just stopped, because I got to the part where Jesus curses the fig tree because it is out of season and therefore had no fruit for Him to eat, and that part always confuses me, and my parents (i.e. my instant Bible Encyclopaedia Reference Human-Books) are not picking up the phone, and I need to understand that part a little better before I move on with Jesus into Jerusalem.

One thing that was shattered today is that Sunday School concept that Everything Is Possible With God. You know, the one where He can apparently do anything ever, and we're lacking faith if we doubt that. Also the one where the kid who wants to test the little Christian kids who haven't yet had to think about their faith asks some sort of ridiculous question..."Well, if God can do anything, can he put himself in a giant microwave and turn it on?"

What??????

That doesn't even mean anything, kid who wants to make other kids uncomfortable. Really. You're stupid.

I don't remember if that was actually the question, but I know it had something to do with God being in a giant microwave. Maybe He was supposed to turn Himself into a hot dog. I don't know.

The point is, that this whole faith thing is a lot more important than I remembered it being. Like, when Jesus goes back to His hometown, He can't heal anybody. Not can't as in, doesn't want to, but can't as in, is unable to. I looked up the word at one point because I was curious, and the words for "can" as in "to be able to" and the word for "power" as in "miraculous power" were very similar, but different, and in the handful of examples I checked out, translated consistently. So Jesus uses miraculous power to give sight to a blind dude, and his miraculous power goes out when the woman with internal bleeding touches His clothes in the crowd. But the simple ability to do something--and subsequent lack of ability, i.e. cannot, could not--is what happens in such cases as, Jesus went to His hometown, and barely anybody had faith in Him, and He healed a handful of people, but left quickly because He could not do anything for the people without faith.

In case you don't believe me, let Mark tell you: "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith." (6:5-6)

I'm not saying I think that Jesus is powerless unless we believe in Him....that would imply that He needs us, and I'm pretty sure that God likes us but doesn't need us in order to be God and all that jazz. (I'll bet He likes Jazz, too...)

I'm just saying that this is what I'm seeing over and over, and I think I'll go back and study it more closely. And maybe write a really cool, well-thought-out post or mini-book or something.

For now, I think what I'm supposed to do (aside from writing the final papers that will sort of help me graduate in a month) is have faith, too. So, with with the father whose son had an evil spirit, I cry out "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

ETA...except hilarious.

So, I'm in the middle of (being distracted for a few minutes from) drafting my research paper on the Basques. I have four solid pages written...and sixteen more before tomorrow. Boo.

Yesterday while I was online, looking for pictures or something, I don't remember (but it was definitely something legitimate for my research...), I stumbled across some videos that tickled my funny bone. A lot.

I also happened to be in class, which made it really difficult. Had I been at home I would have burst into very loud laughter, but instead I had to swallow my guffaws so the prof wouldn't notice...
Anyways, the videos are parodies of ETA communiques. For those who don't know about the Basques or about ETA, wait a month and you can read my paper. hah. But basically, ETA is the separatist group at the extreme left of independence movement, and has been (violently) trying to get Spain to leave them alone since 1968. They always give announcements with masks and traditional headwear on. (We all know, however, that they probably have sexy Basque mullets underneath those hats...)
Anyways, for reference, here's A real ETA video. It's pretty long, so watch as much as you feel necessary.

And, the silly ones:
One
Two
Three
Four
Five

This ended up sparking a couple of hours of watching clips from Vaya Semanita....which I'm going to avoid now, and get back to work.

Agur!

Today

I made purchases.
One cup of coffee, three times filled.
Eggs benedict, hollandaise, two biscuits, potatoes.
Tip.

Four books. Five.
Six.
Four were cheap. Less than three dollars for the lot.
One was not as cheap. Maybe eight.
One, the one that is not a book,
Cost me a hundred Georgies.

Two children's books, Spanish and English. Two poetry books.
One other story.
One for computer, Mr. Gate's riches.