The long way home

 Sometimes after we get to the end of ourselves, we get to the metaphorical end of the line, and realize we should go back in the direction we came from. It is hard, because we tend to be stubborn in some measure, and generally unwilling to admit we are wrong.

Sometimes we don't just get to the end of the line, but the wheels come off, and we crash secretly or spectacularly, but either way we know we have greatly sinned.

We are in company with multitudes of others who have also sinned. Let's see how the Bible puts it...

Romans 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

This definitively includes everyone, so that any of us who likes to point a finger at others, should stop what we are doing and ask God for mercy.

The account of the Prodigal son is an amazing story of God's love. Read it in the Gospel of Luke 15:11-32.  The Father runs to the returning and repentant son, and then showers the son with blessing and love.

So why do we avoid eye contact with God when we find ourselves sitting in the misery of our own not so great decisions?

He is waiting for us, like the father of the prodigal son, looking out for us to see if we have started to move towards Him. We sit in the pigsty we have chosen, and think it is better to hide from God (as if He doesn't know everything already), than come to our senses, repent and return. 

The enemy of God and of our souls would like us to linger permanently in the pigsty. The devil is glad if our avoidance of God because of our sin behavior stretches from days to weeks to years to a lifetime lost.

The devil is fine if we rattle off religious prayers, without truly thinking about or meaning what we are saying. He is fine with everything except us wanting to repent, return and re-establish who we are as sons and daughters of God, in intimate relationship with the One who has created us and loves us so much.

The devil has a real issue with this, because he knows then we will be empowered by God's Holy Spirit to do some radical life changing things in our own existence and in the world around us.

Anything but that....so the devil lies to us that it is a really long way home, and we probably won't make it, and even if we eventually get there, God is still going to be really angry about what we have done, so it is just a lose-lose situation.

Huge lies...but we can believe them, often because other humans have acted that way to us. 

In reality it is not a long way home at all.

God waits for us to turn from our sin, and look to Him for forgiveness, and then to receive His cleansing and grace to move forward again.

This can happen in the minutes of silence when we face God, and allow our eyes to turn to Him again, to start this process of return. We may find we are enveloped in the Father's love, before we can get to the end of what we intend to say about our unworthiness.

God loves us. 

Forgiveness is waiting for us as we turn to Him again. 

Don't believe the lie that it is a long way home.