The parable of the young man is a warning to us to tread
softly and slowly in taking decisions, but it has ample lessons to teach us
also about how to overcome failure – a springboard to life. Overprotecting our
children may not always be the best method of raising our kids. We love them no
doubt, but the home setting is not the same as the street setting and they have
to be immune to that influence too.Theory is not always the key, living it out is best.
Accept the way they would like to frame their lives if it conforms to the norms of society. Let them enjoy the freedom to decide as you help them to steer their existence through the rough seas. The more mistakes we make the better we would be at scaling others.
Our young man was not raised to face such trying conditions and hardship; instead he had been pampered and must have been daddy’s blue-eyed boy because when he returned and his father threw a party for him his elder brother was unhappy. In his anger, he protested “Look all these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him.” (Like 15:29-30)
If the principal character in this parable has not been given a name it is because he could have been any of us; we need only substitute our names or change places. We have at one time or the other transited in the pit of life where taking a wrong decision had been costly for us and had to pay the price. Many of us have gone through this wilderness experience, practically on our own with nowhere to turn. At the height of our ‘I know it all’ rebellion no one had come to our aid, we had been left to steer our own ship in troubled waters and take it to shore amidst raging storms.
Young man, young woman are you in a hurry to enjoy life? Would you like to accelerate the process or would you rather take it step by step, one day at a time? Life itself is a university all on its own. The lessons learnt there cannot be found in any text book. We have to learn the hard way to overcome. There is no crown without a cross; nothing like smooth sailing. If you want it readymade, you are backing the wrong horse.
‘Rome was not built in a day. Any process we have to go through has its ups and downs. God is aware of our situation never think otherwise. Not every failure is a calamity. Let us think positively, after every storm there is a calm. You may have some lofty plans all right but have God endorsed them? Is that what God wants you to do for him? He declares through the prophet Isaiah that we are his therefore “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” (Isaiah 43:2)
