“There Must Be Something Better”

Sunday, August 28, 2016

In Jesus’ story of the lost and found son, the younger son demands his inheritance from his still-living father, he goes to a far country, and he wastes his fortune. And Jesus says, “when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.” (Luke 15:14-16).

It took a fall to the depths to make him realize the true heights he had enjoyed while still with his father. And the young man’s story of deprivation and degradation must surely remind us of our own lives.

Unfortunately, our best perspective on the heights of good comes when we fallen to the depths of evil. For us, the depths may come in the form of infidelity, financial hardship, physical sickness or disability, or any number of other strains which life places upon us.

It’s there that our minds become intuitively aware of not only the possibility but the absolute certainty that there must be something better. Our sense of the divine allows us to perceive a benevolent God’s presence through the created world and even hard-wired into our own consciousness (see Rom. 1:20, Eccl. 3:10). 
When the darkness is so thick that it can almost be felt, we long inexpressibly for light. When the emotions are so heavy we can barely stand them, we want support the most. When we are so hungry as to genuinely be starving, we need food all the more urgently.

As the son in Jesus’ story realized his dire need for his father when he bottomed out in life, we often realize the true extent of our need for God the Father when we are at our lowest points.

If that’s where you are, you should know that there is something better. There is a Father who will welcome you with open arms. And there is a whole family of His children at this place who will do the same! In the depths, look to the heights, and know that God can—and will—save!

- Dan Lankford, minister

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