Free Solo

A recent article in National Geographic Magazine published remarkable images of climbers as they scaled the sheer rock face of Yosemite’s 2,916- ft. (889 meters) El Capitan. Astonishingly, some of the climbers make portions of the ascent without safety ropes in a death-taunting exercise known as “free solo.” These guys literally live on the edge.

Some of the most hard-core climbers don’t seem to have much of a life beyond their pursuit of the next adrenaline rush. They feed their addiction to climbing with money gained from bottle returns and whatever additional means of support they can scrounge up. It’s amazing what you can sacrifice when you have a single focus.

We might call it madness, but Jesus challenges us to have a single focus that resembles this level of dedication. When a wealthy young man approached Him with the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17), Jesus put his finger on the one thing keeping the man from God. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (Mark 10:21).

Peter, perhaps sanctimoniously, interjected, “We’ve given up everything to follow You” (Mark 10:28). Jesus replied, “Everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for My sake and for the good news, will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution” (Mark 10:29-30).

Jesus’ challenge to us is to be as radically dedicated as a free-solo climber focused only on his climb. But we don’t do this solo. We have the promise of the Holy Spirit to help us each painstaking inch of the way (John 16:7,13). That’s real life—fulfilling and free—on the edge.

Taken from Our Daily Journey

One Lost Son

This story of the prodigal son is one of the most famous and familiar of Jesus’ parables. And the most personal. For it touches an area that is often the most painful—our children.

In the parables of the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7) and lost coin (Luke 15:8-10), the emphasis is on the lostness and the relentless efforts of the owners to recover what was lost (Luke 15:4,8). The sheep was lost due to its natural propensity or weakness to stray; the coin through carelessness. But the son was lost because of his own willful sinfulness (Luke 15:11-13).

Instead of a seeking shepherd and a searching woman, we have a waiting father. The aggrieved father did not relentlessly pursue his wayward son. Instead, he patiently waited for the son to return. Undoubtedly, the father had perseveringly prayed for his son to come “to his senses” (Luke 15:17).

The turnaround came when the son willed to “go home to [his] father and say, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you’” (Luke 15:18). The son also took deliberate steps to come home: “So he returned home to his father” (Luke 15:20).

Why didn’t the father go and search for his lost son? The first two stories made it clear that Jesus came to seek and save those who are lost (Luke 19:10). But this third story of the prodigal son emphasizes the responsibility of the lost—the need for us to repent. The longsuffering Father patiently and lovingly waits for us to return home. “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). The son’s guilty sinfulness is overshadowed only by the Father’s gracious forgiveness.

Have you willfully left home? Come back to your senses!

Taken from Our Daily Journey