The Prodigal Path

Note:  Just a book idea... a faint push/prompt that came out of a dream.  Not even CLOSE to a complete thought yet, but... thought I'd brainstorm a little.  
I suppose I'm happy too that my dream prompted this, as it is spiritually constructive and not something of darker note.  I don't usually have good dreams about my past, so... happy this particular sadness prompted something good.

Then this morning after I posted this, God led me to revisit this song:  

Perfect for this topic.

*     *     *

~FORWARD

'Because at some point in our lives, we are all prodigals...'

I. Defining The Prodigal

1.) (www.dictionary.com) - Prodigal: a person who spends, or has spent, his or her money or substance with wasteful extravagance; spendthrift. 

  

2.) (Oxford English Dictionary) - Prodigal: To give or spend wastefully or extravagantly; to squander; to lavish. 

 3.) (http://www.merriam-webster.com/) - Prodigal:  

     1.) characterized by profuse or wasteful expenditure :  lavish

    2.) yielding abundantly :  luxuriant —often used with of prodigal

of her bounty — H. T. Buckle 

4.) (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/) - Prodigal: tending to spend or use something without thinking of the future 

5.) (Jesus:) 'My beloved child that has wandered away from home and whose return I keep watch for every day.'

I find it interesting that all the definitions written with the brilliant minds of modern scholars behind them focus on the definition of a prodigal by a negative description of what they do, excepting Merriam-Webster's 2nd definition which refers not to man, but to nature, as being luxuriant.  By human standards, the prodigal is defined by his actions: wasteful, short-sighted, irresponsible, and foolish.  Certainly in Jesus story He makes mention of the prodigal son's bad acts, some relating to money, but more in the manner of examples.  Leaving it at the prodigal's acts is falling utterly short of the point.  (As I was writing, a song came to my prodigal mind called 'We Are The Reason' by David Meece - to me, the prodigal mind - or at least THIS recovered prodigal mind - is characterized in part by an enormous sense of shame and regret.  Of being a disappointment.  And honestly, given the 'scholars' definitions of and view on prodigals, no wonder!)  To God, the prodigal is viewed first with nothing short of love.

Excerpt from T.S. Elliott

Note: This is not my work.  Usually, I only post up my own personal writing or reflections, but occassionally, I post up something else that inspires me or that I really admire.  This is one of those times.  This is a small excerpt from T.S. Eliott's poem, 'Little Gidding'.  I've tried to keep the punctuation the same as well.  What poet doesn't respect T.S. Elliott, right?  I am no exception.  So, this is his.



'Little Gidding' - Stanza 3 & 4

It would be the same, when you leave the rough road

And turn behind the pig-sty to the dull facade

And the tombstone.  And what you thought you came for

Is only a s hell, a husk of meaning

From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled

It at all.  Either you had no purpose

Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured

And is altered in fulfillment.  There are other places

Which also are the world's end, some at the sea jaws,

Or over a dark lake, in a desert or a city --

But this is the nearest, in place and time,

Now and in England.

If you came this way,

Taking any route, starting from anywhere,

At any time or at any season,

It would always be the same: you would have to put off

Sense and notion.  You are not here to verify,

Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity

Or carry report.  You are here to kneel

Where prayer has been valid.  And prayer is more

Than an order of words, the conscious occupation

Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying.

And what the dead had no speech for, when living,

They can tell you, being dead: the communication

Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.

here, the intersection of the timeless moment

Is England and nowhere.  Never and always.