Not long ago, my wife and I stayed up late to watch a program that aired on a particular Christian network that was featuring several dynamic leaders. The primary focus of the program was to discuss the importance of re-establishing a connection between fathers and sons; not simply in the arena of family, but specifically in the arena of ministry.
For approximately 90 minutes, we watched as these leaders shared their passion to see believers awaken to the importance of seeking out a spiritual covering to operate and grow under. They concluded that in the hearts of many within today’s generation, there is a seed of rebellion rooted within a desire to succeed and conquer in life as individuals.
Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to mix and mingle with many leaders my age and younger who have become dissatisfied with where they are in life, and have begun to lean hard into the unknown. While some believe wholeheartedly that their decisions to launch out are God-inspired, there are also some who are honest enough to admit that their decisions to launch out are deeply rooted in what they perceived to be a father’s failure to launch.
Every year, new ministries and churches are being forming out of the pain of unfulfilled sons, rather than out of the joy of fulfilled fathers, who have come to the conclusion that the sons and daughters they have raised are ready to receive an inheritance, and be planted elsewhere. This growing trend has in many ways delayed the blessings that are in store for sons when they refuse to ‘turn their hearts back to their fathers’ (see Malachi 4:5v).
However, as a son, and now a father of three, there was only one thing that troubled me after watching the program. In fact, it troubled me so much that I stayed up through the night reading over a familiar passage of scripture to us all, which is found in Luke 15:
Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
Any of this sound familiar? Yep, it is from the parable of the lost son. The prodigal son. Arguably one of my favorite stories in the entire Bible. So why did I seek this passage out? What is it about this passage (and the program I had watched that night) that kept me up reading?
The answer is below:
And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.’
I’ve always marveled at how Jesus chose to unwrap this story. Here we find a son, who because of his desire for what was ahead of him, made a decision to disconnect with what was behind him. A decision that cost him everything.
However, when the son discovers that his decision to leave was incorrect, he ‘came to himself’ and arose to come back home to his father. But what is interesting about this story is what happens next. When the father saw that his son was still ‘a great way off’ – he RAN to meet his son.
He ran.
He did not wait for his son to fully return.
He did not wait for His son to issue an apology.
He ran.
While I wholeheartedly believe that more sons need to arise and return back to reconnect to the hearts of fathers, I also believe that there is a responsibility for fathers to RUN. What many fathers fail to realize is that many of their sons have been walking back home for quite some time. However, the length of the road that separates where they are and where their fathers STAND may often give the impression that the process of reconciliation has not begun.
And since many sons have yet to see their fathers RUNNING…
…many have turned away and decided to walk down a different path.
I want to encourage and strongly admonish every father (both in the natural and the spiritual) to begin to RUN after your sons and daughters as fast as you can. There may be perhaps no greater demonstration of God’s love.
