Today was a great day. My much anticipated package arrived. Drop Like Stars, the new book by Rob Bell, teaching pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For more information about Rob you can visit his site here. I of course immediately dropped (huh interesting choice of word) everything that I had on me and ripped open the package and eagerly opened the huge hardcover book.
No, I haven't finished it yet. Are you crazy?
I have started reading it and im only a couple of pages in and already have fallen in love with it and had to put it down when I read his little blurb about the "Prodigal Son." I stopped because I just had to share. Here is what it says in the text. I'll be starting with the older sons response the whole village party of his little brother returning.
"This celebration infuriates the older brother. He refuses to join the party and instead argues the injustice of it all to their father, who responds, 'My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive; he was lost and is found.'
The older then has a moment of profound enlightenment. He puts his arm around his father and says, 'You're right, Dad. I'm sorry I've been such an ass. Can I get you a beer?'
Uh…actually, that's not how the story ends. The story ends with the father's words about how everything he has belongs to his son and how they have to celebrate because his son 'was dead and is alive again.'"
What an odd way to finish a story? It begs the question, "Why doesn't God give us a little bit more closure on this story? We don't know what the elder brother decides to do. He could've pulled a Cain and killed the younger brother or could have done what is right and welcomed his brother back with open arms. We don't know.
Where is the Hollywood ending?
Well, Rob provides the scene that is already in your head I'm sure.
"The older brother enters the party and the younger brother is surrounded by people who want to talk to him but he sees his brother and so he says to them, 'just a minute, please' as he starts walking toward his brother and the orchestra music in the background gets louder and louder as they get closer and closer until they embrace and everybody at the party circles around them and starts clapping and then the camera pans over to that one last shot – the one of the father holding a glass of champagne with a smile on his face and a tear in his eye."
Some elder brothers never join the party Some fathers never throw one. Some brothers never come back. Some things never get resolved.
In the midst of tragedy people affected by it want answers and it would wise of us to just be present with them. Don't say anything, but just be present. Sometimes we dont do that. We say things like, "this is just how God planned it," which makes us think, "The god who planned THAT is not a god I want anything to do with."
Life hurts. We have times of laughter, suffering, joy, and pain. During these times we desire answers from God but we are met with silence. I think the silence in the midst of pain is brilliant. God wired us to be relational, creative, emotional beings. He knows we want answers, but time and time again He meets our questions with silence because there is a time and place for words.
Sometimes even though we think we want answers, who's to say we're gonna like the answers that we get? Just having people present and there because they can be speaks more than words do. Even in 1 Corinthians we learn in the "love chapter" what love really is and in that section of passage everything that describes love is not using words. It's action.
Actions speak louder than words. God teaches us in this moment that in life there are things that wont be resolved. They wont have a definite absolute answer.
Not everything in life has a hollywood ending, but God is always present.