The Prodigal God, Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Timothy Keller; 2008; 139 pages; Dutton, New York, NY; 978-0-525-95079-0; 4/16/09-4/17/09

Both Randy and Kendra Shaw recommended this book to me last Sunday at church.  They weren’t together but I asked  them each what they were reading and they raved about this little book.  On Monday I put it on hold through the library and had it by Wednesday.  I started reading it on Thursday.

This is another book that I am going to buy and add to my annual reading list.

Tim Keller uses what is usually known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son to show that neither son really loved the Father but they both just wanted what they could get from the Father.  They went at it in different ways, with the younger son asking for his inheritance now and the elder son, willing to wait for what was his.  The elder son followed a strict code of doing what the father told him and keeping accounts.  The younger brother realized the error of his way and returned prepared to simply be a slave in his fathers house.  The older brother didn’t welcome him back but rather complained about what the father didn’t do for him.  How it was he who kept the law, but the younger son got the goodies.  It reminds me of the scene in Field of Dreams, where Joe Jackson asks Terrence Mann (movie version) if he wants to go into the corn with them.  Ray Kinsella says hey wait a minute I have done everything that I was asked to and I never once asked what’s in it for me.  Joe looks at him and ask what are you saying Ray, and all Ray can do is ask what’s in it for me.  Here he has been doing what was asked first out of a sense of joy and awe and now it’s about what’s in it for me.  Too often I feel like that is how I live out my Christianity, if I do enough for God he will feel compelled to do something for me.  I should be living for God because he gave me a free gift and to thank him for that gift I should do what he asks, things like caring for one another, taking care of widows and orphans, taking care of his creation that I live in the midst of and not making up a list of rights and wrong behavior, some of which have nothing to do with what God wants of me.  He has set standards for us, but I think “religion” has set more standards for Christian behavior than God has.  I would highly recommend to everyone, especially most of us inside the church.  RRRR