I’ve never sent a complaint email to any organization – until Wednesday night.
Like millions of people around the world I was glued to the television watching the rescue of the Chilean miners. The second one, Mario Sepulveda was being pulled up. Everyone was wondering what kind of physical condition these men would be in after being trapped underground for sixty-nine days. A medical stretcher was just a few feet away from the rescue hole, waiting to take each miner to a treatment tent.
When the door of the extraction capsule opened, Mario jumped out, made sure that he had his bag of souvenir rocks that he started passing out. Then he rushed over to the crowd of people behind the barricades and began leading a cheer.
It was amazing. His new nickname? Super Mario.
He expressed the incredible joy of someone being saved from death.
CNN, of course, was covering it. But, while Super Mario was being super, Larry King was interviewing some American psychologist about the affects of the experience. Anderson Cooper would have been silent, allowing the incredible scene to be the total message – the incredible scene of joy.
So, I shot off an email suggesting that we be allowed to fully engage these remarkable moments.
This Sunday, in our series on The Prodigal God we get closer to the heart of the message of Jesus. We’ve been looking at the famous story told by Jesus in Luke 15 about two lost sons. Jesus tells three stories that all include incredible joy.
There is a celebration that Jesus doesn’t want us to miss. It was a celebration that was worth his life, a celebration of rescue.
But, it is easy to miss. It is easy to turn Jesus’ message into a try harder, be good or God want love you message. No rescue in that.
How can our lives be shaped by the joy of the rescue?
This Sunday.