So here I am, one week in to my new birthday club. Loved the shirt I got: "In Dog years, I'm dead."

The truth is I don't feel any older, its everyone else around me thats getting older.

Preaching on the lost son in Luke 15 is such a reminder to me of what I have been in my life. I've been lost and rebellious; I've wasted and wanted. I've hurt people and been hurt by people. I guess most of us could write that same script.

This week, my attention turns to the Father in the story. This is where my perspective continues to grow and change. Being a father helps me relate in ways I never have before, and having kids approaching those teenage years really does a number to me.

While theologians debate wheter or not the father represents God in the parable, he, at the very least, points us to God and reminds us of Him...a wise and loving Father. He even treated his servants with plenty of respect. What an admirable example and one to strive to be more like. I will spare the 40 reasons to try and be like the father and leave it with one really good one: the world needs love and forgiveness.

Catch ya later.