The Prodigal Organizer

I was reading in the Bible the other day the story of the prodigal son and I caught something I've never understood before.

The story tells of two sons who are given an inheritance. One wastes his inheritance and sinks to despair while the other takes good care of his inheritance. The wayward son returns to his father and the father rejoices in the returned son and celebrates in his return while the other son feels jealous because he took good care of the inheritance the whole time and didn't get this type of treatment.

So the part that I missed was when the prodigal son returned, he returned expecting no royal treatment at all - in fact he returned with this statement to his father: "I am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants" (Luke 15:19). He knew he had made mistakes and he returned in an attitude of complete humility. Only then was the celebration fitting. Perhaps a lack of this same humility was the reason the brother didn't receive such royal treatment.

This was inspiring to me. The getting done of keeping commandments, serving, performing in a Church calling, donating to the save Japan fund, and whatever else may be needed is not as important as the doing of these things. In other words, if the heart isn't in it, doing all this other stuff is good but just a completed checklist in the end. I believe that what's really important is the state of our hearts, not how much stuff we got done.

So I went about my day trying to keep an attitude like the prodigal son - being a servant. As a result, I worked hard in the day trying to improve things at work, help people, and reflect on how I can really serve better. By days end, my checklist of very good things (like obtaining a list of volunteers to clean the Church this weekend, setting appointments to visit neighbors, helping organize project approvals, resolve conflict on the team, hiring new people, and completing a report to upper management) wasn't all checked off. But I knew I had served from dawn until dusk - trying hard to not think about my own interests as I went. I also believed that God would make up the difference in what I lacked. That felt really good - much better than the geeky thrill I sometimes get from having a checked off list.