14 min
Episode 7: Prodigal Yeah, That's My Dad
-
- Documentary
In 1992, my dad went prodigal.
He was reeling from the awful treatment he’d received the hands of narcissistic church leaders. Anyone would have been.
He was disoriented by the departure of both of his sons to college. That nest got empty fast.
Everything he had worked hard to build ministry wise was over, gone, finished, and he was staring down a totally unknown future.
But rather than leaning hard into God and into his marriagr, this man - who for over 20 years had served God from Brooklyn to Boston with all his heart, and had helped hundreds of broken people heal through the power of the gospel, and had done it all, literally, arm in arm with his wife - came totally unhinged, walked away from any semblance of gospel community, and strode into a brief but sinful, foolish, irrational connection with different woman.
That this would happen - that my dad would sin, bad - should surprise exactly none of us.
Gospel people, even the most earnest of them, are not immune from blindspots and folly and sin.
In fact, the opposite is true, we are blind foolish sinners to our core, by nature and choice, in desperate need not only of the one-for-all forgiveness of our sin that comes through Christ’s work on the cross, but also of the ongoing help of the Spirit to walk in the sanity of holiness.
As Ray Ortlund often says to pastors, we are , all of us, about three minutes from moral and ministry failure.
Scripture makes this abundantly clear: sans Christ, there are no perfect people.
David, whose heart was dialed in with God’s. broke the entire second table of the law in one reckless weekend. Coveteousness, adultery, murder, theft, false witness. He hit the quinfecta of sin.
Peter, the rock on whose confession the church was built, went so racist so fast that he won’t even eat at the same table with the Gentile Christians.
Euodia and Synteche, who were gospel friends and sisters on mission, got into such a heated, nasty, public beef that Paul had to call them out by name in one of his letters.
The gospel is not for good people who somehow manage to keep it all together their whole life.
The gospel is for bigtime sinners who need bigtime grace.
Thankfully, God gives this grace - grace that convicts, grace that forgives, grace that restores.
In this episode, I asked my dad to quietly walk through that darkest two years of his life. I did not interrupt him. I didn’t even stay in the room actually. It was just him, alone, bearing quiet and honest witness to the heart of God to prodigal sons like him, like all of us.
In 1992, my dad went prodigal.
He was reeling from the awful treatment he’d received the hands of narcissistic church leaders. Anyone would have been.
He was disoriented by the departure of both of his sons to college. That nest got empty fast.
Everything he had worked hard to build ministry wise was over, gone, finished, and he was staring down a totally unknown future.
But rather than leaning hard into God and into his marriagr, this man - who for over 20 years had served God from Brooklyn to Boston with all his heart, and had helped hundreds of broken people heal through the power of the gospel, and had done it all, literally, arm in arm with his wife - came totally unhinged, walked away from any semblance of gospel community, and strode into a brief but sinful, foolish, irrational connection with different woman.
That this would happen - that my dad would sin, bad - should surprise exactly none of us.
Gospel people, even the most earnest of them, are not immune from blindspots and folly and sin.
In fact, the opposite is true, we are blind foolish sinners to our core, by nature and choice, in desperate need not only of the one-for-all forgiveness of our sin that comes through Christ’s work on the cross, but also of the ongoing help of the Spirit to walk in the sanity of holiness.
As Ray Ortlund often says to pastors, we are , all of us, about three minutes from moral and ministry failure.
Scripture makes this abundantly clear: sans Christ, there are no perfect people.
David, whose heart was dialed in with God’s. broke the entire second table of the law in one reckless weekend. Coveteousness, adultery, murder, theft, false witness. He hit the quinfecta of sin.
Peter, the rock on whose confession the church was built, went so racist so fast that he won’t even eat at the same table with the Gentile Christians.
Euodia and Synteche, who were gospel friends and sisters on mission, got into such a heated, nasty, public beef that Paul had to call them out by name in one of his letters.
The gospel is not for good people who somehow manage to keep it all together their whole life.
The gospel is for bigtime sinners who need bigtime grace.
Thankfully, God gives this grace - grace that convicts, grace that forgives, grace that restores.
In this episode, I asked my dad to quietly walk through that darkest two years of his life. I did not interrupt him. I didn’t even stay in the room actually. It was just him, alone, bearing quiet and honest witness to the heart of God to prodigal sons like him, like all of us.
14 min