He Ran...

Dear workout friends, go ahead and skip this one.

Workout is going good, squatting, deadlifting, killing it in the gym.

I can't get this thought and phrase out of my head...he ran.

I use a King James Version Bible.  Everything in the church is cooler and has been upgraded now, Christianity 2.0 or 3.0 or 10.0.  You've got guitars and drums.  Everything a yuppie needs but someone singing the crushing hymn, "It is well".

Words are so much better in the King James version, riotous living is translated loosely.  It doesn't have the same panache.

I've digressed and mumbled too much.

Today in Sunday School we did a look at the Prodigal Son, the lesson is the Lost Son but could also be called the Two Lost Sons.  It's a story of a son who turned away from his father and a story of a son who had also lost his way.  I'm not going to reveal the part about the second son because that was the kicker, the last 15 minutes.  You have to pay for that part.  :)  You should've been in Sunday School.

Also, there's a beautiful Rembrandt painting.

Another long digression...

When another Bible version uses a phrase it makes my ears perk up.

In both readings and my version, when the father saw his son coming back, it says he ran.  He ran to meet him.  The father was looking for him and he ran to meet him.  Now, let's go back the story...the son had gone.  The son had spent everything.  The son had hit rock bottom.  His plan was to go back and beg his father to allow him to be a servant.  He was going to beg his own father to be a servant.

A couple of neat things happen here...it says the father saw him from far off.  That means he was looking.  That means he hadn't given up.

The father was looking for him.  The father ran to him.  He didn't make him walk all the way up the drive and come inside.  He went to meet him.  This was his son at his lowest point and he ran to meet him.

As a father and a husband, I'm reminded of my failure.  I've been called to love my wife as Christ and I've been called as a father to love my daughter.

More than that, I've been called to love others.

How often do I run to meet someone in need?

How often do I run to comfort?

I used to think of myself as the Hulk.  A looming, lurking monster, always vigilant in the darkness, ready to visit pain and destruction.

Maybe, I'm Baymax.  As a Christian, my primary function is healing and secondary preventing harm.

We'll see.  Doogie Howser out.