Susan J. Thompson - The Prodigal Brother: Making Peace with Your Parents, Your Past, and the Wayward One in Your Family

The Prodigal Brother

Making Peace with Your Parents, Your Past,
and the Wayward One in Your Family

Sue Thompson

Copyright 2010 Susan J. Thompson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1-(866) 928-1240

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-4497-0053-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-0054-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-0052-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010901378

Printed in the United States of America

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/19/2010

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version . NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (MSG) are taken from The Message . Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group

I am humbled by the support and devotion of my husband, the love of my life, Larry. Talk about unmerited favor! You are a gift.

This book is dedicated to my father, my mother, and my brother. If only I had not fought so hard against what God put in my way. He had a plan and worked it in spite of me.

... so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:11).

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE

We Are All
Far From Home

There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my fathers hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men. So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Lets have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, Look! All these years Ive been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him! My son, the father said, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.

LUKE 15:11-32

I used to travel with an evangelist who had been a cocktail

waitress in Las Vegas. Whenever she told the story of her sad, drug-addicted life before she became a Christian, people were on the edge of their seats. She had a wonderful, honest sense of humor; crowds would howl with laughter over her stories about her naive attempts to talk about God with the busboys, waitresses, and blackjack dealers with whom she worked. She would end with a powerful call to those whose lives were as misused and as damaged as hers had been, urging them to come and meet the One who could make all things new.

Not everyone has a personal story like my evangelist friend, of setting off to throw away his or her life, but we thrill to hear exciting testimonies that play for us again the story of the prodigal. Theres nothing we love more than to hear of a battered life given a fresh chance. Its the expression of an eternal hope: that God is so loving toward us He will enable us to open just one eye, even halfway, to see where we are and where we need to be and then give us the strength to make the walk to His mercy.

Because of this, we often make celebrities out of folks who have a captivating testimony. When I was a new believer in the 1970s, it seemed that church services and Christian radio and television programs were filled with dramatic accounts of tormented lives turned around by Jesus Christ. Those who had been raised in stable, God-fearing families and had invited Jesus into their hearts at a young age often felt, in comparison, they had nothing to share. Their histories werent as impressive as Born to Be WildUntil I Met Jesus or How I Experienced Complete Ruin Before I Found the Lord.

It took some of us a while to realize simple testimonies of childhood conversions are as powerful and as impressive as accounts of a life wasted. When God prevents a journey of emptiness and pain, its as much of a miraculous intervention as those other sensational reports. Weve come to realize, too, that we are all prodigals, regardless of our stories. We must all come to our senses wherever we are and walk toward that cross on the hill.

There are two brothers in the parable of the prodigal son, and we usually focus our attention on the younger one. Now theres a testimony! Demanding his share of the family wealth, he ran off to another country, spent it on wild living and prostitutes, and ended up so broke he fed pigs just to get by. As all parents of prodigals pray their children will do, he came to a stinging realization of how good it had been at home, where even men his father hired to do menial work had far more than he did. No one gave him anything, the story tells us, and in such a rotten place he longed to be treated as generously as a field worker on his fathers land. The younger brother was broken by the consequences of his decisions and saw this clearly enough to head for home.