Prodigal James

If I just showed up at your party

Would you have me? Would you want me?

Would you tell me to go straight to hell

Or lead me to the garden?

~ Taylor Swift, Betty

Tonight I was thinking about these lyrics, because we, like James in this song, have done stupid things and require forgiveness and quite frankly deserve to be told to go straight to hell. But it made me specifically think of the prodigal son in Luke 15, and the difference between James's Betty and our God that we need forgiveness from is that God doesn't wait for us to show up at His party; instead even while we are a long way off, He runs out to us to embrace us, forgive us and bring us home. 

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."

And then God throws a cracker party, where the answers are yes: Yes, He would have me; Yes, He would want me. He leads us into His garden of promises where we are absolutely wanted and loved and held forever! 

So as I listen to Betty, I find myself grateful once again that Jesus shows up so that we can party with Him. 

Stupid Games, Stupid Prizes

 You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes

~ Taylor Swift, Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince

What games am I playing? What prizes am I spending my life trying to win? These are the questions that always pop into my mind when I hear this song. 

I want to be playing for a prize that really matters, for a prize that lasts, to look back at the end and know I have achieved something of meaning. I certainly don't want to pour out my life in the pursuit of something that doesn't even matter. I don't want to play stupid games to win stupid prizes. 

It also makes me think of the times of playing Candy Crush when I start a level without taking in what the goal is, and then I get caught up clearing out the chocolate or collecting the pieces that seem the most obvious, only to get to the end of my moves and realise I completely missed the mark in what I needed to do. 

I don't want that to be true of my life. When my moves are up at the end of my days, I don't want to have just done my own thing, thinking I know best, and completely miss the true goal of my life. So I need to pause often and remember what the goal and the prize set before me is: 

Philippians 3:12-14 "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

James 1:12 "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him."

The upward call of God in Christ Jesus is the goal I am striving for, the game I am called to play; and the crown of life, which God has promised to me, is the prize I am living for.