NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

Day 11 - Spiritual anorexia

Scripture focus: "When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: 'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.'" Luke 15:20-21 (The Message)

Lesson 4

How does the dad respond to this plea?

The father doesn't wait to see if his son can indeed earn his way back into the family. Instead, he welcomes him without condition. This was probably not the welcome this son expected. In fact, he probably chaffed under such lavish loving. This boy would have been more comfortable performing an act of restitution than receiving from his dad. I bet a stern lecture or at least some serious groveling would have been easier to handle than this uncharacteristic display of unconditional love.

Certainly making amends would feel good - a kind of grand gesture at wiping the slate clean. Performing might prove the child's worth - but receiving yet again from a father he spurned actually accentuates his neediness. The father runs. Estate owners of his day don't run. They don't pick up their robes and bare their legs. This father acts more like a mother, showing absolute emotional abandon.

At our son's basketball game last weekend, Michael got his teeth rearranged. I almost charged the court, but fortunately for Michael, he resumed play before I could get my shoes on and leap over the people blocking my path. Pete didn't make a move toward our wounded baby. There's a basic biological difference in mothers and fathers that remains a mystery to me. But in this story, this dad breaks with tough guy tradition and runs like a girl to his son.

Books have been written about how the father's love is a vivid reminder of God's love for us. But that's not the part of the story I want to call your attention to. Instead, consider this: this son was spiritually anorexic (a term explained at length in Soul Repair).

As defined on page 43 of the book Soul Repair, "Spiritual anorexia is a kind of giving up on the possibility that God will meet our spiritual needs. Those of us who struggle with spiritual anorexia conclude that no more spiritual nurture is available. We must make do with the little we have. As a result, we live with a kind of lethargy, a resignation, a passivity, a hopelessness and despair that can sometimes be mistaken for contentment. We show up week after week at the spiritual dinner table, but we never eat." Are you spiritually anorexic?

Recommended reading: Luke 10-12

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