Splash the Puddles

Recently, my pastor spoke one simple sentence that has taken hold of my heart and hasn't loosened it's grip since. "We have [His promised] peace as Christ followers, but it is up to use how we cultivate this fruit..."  When we enter into relationship with Jesus, He freely gifts us with His peace, but how thoroughly that is manifested throughout our lives is in our hands. In other words, whether it lies dormant, or whether it brings the life that is intended, is determined by how dependent we are on it, how well we utilize the gift of peace He's given us. Peace in my circumstances, in the "bigger" areas of life seems to come fairly easy to me.  When we've faced difficult roads as a family, the loss of our first baby, and other various trials, I've basked in the comfort of God's peace throughout the hardship and healing.  I know that peace that passes all understanding... There's one area, however, where I've had a lifelong struggle...

In the parable of the Lost Son, Jesus teaches of a man with two sons.  He divided equally each one's share of his estate, withholding nothing from them.  Having been equipped with all he needed for a prosperous and victorious life, the youngest son soon set off on his own.  Venturing out in his own strength,  he managed to squander everything he had been given, wasting it all on wild living.  Once it was all gone, there was a famine in the land and he was in need.  By this time, desperation had set in, and he hired himself out to a citizen of the country to feed his pigs.  Scripture said "he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything..."   He'd been given everything he needed, and abundantly, by his father who loved him.  Yet, he wasted it all.  Face to face with his shame and guilt, he had a choice. He could continue to perish in the suffocating circumstances that were a result of ...