The Man Asleep ON My Car

 

Having lived several decades and lived and served as a pastor in many places, there are many memorable Sunday mornings.   I recall one Sunday morning when I came out of the parsonage to head to the church as I readied for the church activities of the day when I saw something I had never seen before  and something that I have never seen since:   a man asleep on the hood of my car parked in the driveway.   Please understand that the man was not asleep IN my car, but the man was asleep ON my car

I did not  know what to do.  Was the man dead or was he just asleep?   Should I call the police or simply try to arouse him from his slumber?     I chose the latter, and the good news is that he gradually woke up.   As I got closer to the nocturnal visitor, I discovered that he had a strong  smell of alcoholic beverages on him.   As he woke, he looked at me with embarrassment as he realized that I was the pastor.  Slowly, he stumbled to his feet and slowly walked to the mobile home nearby that he called home.   This man and I continued to see each other in our comings and goings.   We would throw up a hand  at each other and we both went to and fro, but we never talked about the event on that Sunday morning.   The best that I could figure is that he was so drunk the night before that he mistakenly thought when he arrived at the parsonage that he was home. 

Sometimes, people find themselves in the wrong place just as that drunken man at the parsonage many years ago.   In Luke 15, we hear about a man that wakes up one day and realizes he was in the wrong place.   This prodigal son had gone away from home with hopes that life was better there.    Though he left with his pockets full of his Dad’s money, one day he woke up to find his friends far away and so was his money.   He had not only wasted his money, but found himself wasting his life and heading in the wrong direction.  He decided he would return to his father.  

Have you ever found yourself in the wrong place in your life?   Have you ever woke up perhaps not in a drunken stupor, but to realize that you are on a dead end street?  Like that man who woke from the hood of my car long ago, you can always head home to the Father who you will find anxiously waiting to tell you “welcome home”.     Have a joy-filled week!-  Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER :     O God,  we give you thanks for your love that receives your wayward children and loves them that we know in your son Jesus Christ.   Help us to turn to you;  through Christ our Lord.   Amen.