Time To Go Home
In my latest book, The PrayFit Diet, I wrote this as part of an intro to one of the chapters. There's a reason I open with it today:
You know the story. A silhouette appears on the horizon. Too far away to distinguish, but a father who's been waiting for his son to come home can't help but wonder. Squinting, he raises his hand over his eyes to block the sun's glare. As the distant figure gets closer, the father begins to walk in that direction; slowly at first, trying to match the pace of his visitor. Until he realizes this is...this is no visitor. It's him. It's his boy. His long, lost son was home. And with compassion and forgiveness, he ran to him, embraced him, kissed him, clothed him and fed him.
You know the story. The prodigal son is nothing new to you. The son takes his inheritance and high-tails it his way to the highway. You know the story. And in one way or another maybe you've lived it. Perhaps you're living it now. Maybe not with an inheritance, but perhaps with your inherited health. Long hours, long days, obligations, deadlines, family matters, friends that matter, must-see TV and your must-read social media find you on foreign soil; a place you were never designed to be. Maybe it's time to go home.
-Jimmy Peña
A Personal Request:
Dear friends, if I can beg you, we need your prayers. We have a prodigal in our family. My nephew Casey is in such pain. Lost spiritually, addicted physically, Casey needs nothing more and nothing less than God to intervene in his life. My sweet brother and sister-in-law are desperate for sincere, earnest prayer. Their youngest, Casey, is strong-willed, smart, funny, handsome and hard-working. Good with his hands and with a creative side to him, God gave Casey so much talent. But somewhere along the way, Casey was deceived. The enemy got hold of him, introduced him to the wrong crowd and led him in the wrong direction; away from home.
Casey's disease of addiction is as much - or more - of a spiritual battle as it is a physical one. The chains hold him fast. We need a miracle. He's in trouble. Only God can save him. So I'm asking everyone to please pray for Casey right now. If you can find a place to add him to your prayers, maybe from your knees near your bedside, please beg God for grace, for intervention, for supernatural healing. It may mean that Casey - in prodigal-like fashion - hits rock bottom, and if that is what needs to happen, please Lord let it be. Casey needs to realize that Jesus is the answer and that help is waiting and freedom from those chains is possible.
There's an old song from The Gaither Vocal Band about the prodigal son story, and I think my dear, godly brother sings it in his heart every single day. Let's join him.
My son, I love you. You are forgiven.
You still belong here. Won't you come home.
The family's waiting to celebrate you.
You are forgiven. Won't you come home.
Thank you, everyone for your prayers for my Bubba (Jerry) and his wife, Paula; and Casey.
