When Your Distant Land is the Local Mexican Restaurant

“A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.” (Luke 15:13)

I love all things Mexican food. Enchiladas, refried beans, and nachos top the list. I am obsessed with good chips and salsa. Not every place has good chips or good salsa. Our local Mexican restaurant has the best of both. Every time I go there, I eat more than my fair share of chips. Why yes, please, do bring another basket and I’ll fight you for the crumbs.

Then I eat my meal. For dessert, I eat more chips.

Throwing off all restraint, I will eat until I feel sick.

In the story of the lost son we read of a young man who heads off to a distant land and squanders his inheritance in wild living. We read this and we think he took a trip to somewhere far away; a country boy who goes to the city. However, to the hearers of Jesus’ words, a “distant land” had specific meaning.

The distant land was the land of the Gentiles, land of the “sinners,” and going there meant this young man walked away from his faith. He turned his back on God and everything he knew to be right. He chose to pursue sinful self-gratification at all costs.

While reading Kyle Idleman’s book Aha, which looks at this passage in depth, I had the startling revelation that this particular restaurant was a distant land for me.

I indulge in my own version of wild living as I gorge on chips and salsa, nachos, and refried beans. I choose to turn my back on what I know to be right in order to fulfill my fleshly appetite.

The distant land is not reserved for non-Christians. Plenty of us who profess Jesus as our Lord have distant lands. My example might seem frivolous but our distant lands do not have to be hugely obvious like pornography or adultery.

Our distant land is any aspect of our lives where we choose to live apart from God and His life-giving Word.

Any area in our life where God is not welcome.

Life in the distant land is not good. This particular distant land (I am sure I have others still to be revealed) makes me feel sick. Your distant land might leave you in debt, cause you to lose those you love, create a heart harboring anger or bitterness, or find you desperately seeking fulfillment in things. The joy of this story is that we do not have to stay in the distant land. We get there voluntarily and we can leave voluntarily.

The lost son looked up one day and realized how far away he had gone. He stood up at once and made his way home. Full of repentance, he turned and walked back into his father’s loving embrace.

I looked up one day and realized how awful I felt when I abandoned restraint. I turned and went back to what God’s Word says about taking care of my body and practicing self-discipline and wisdom and applied it to my dining choices. It isn’t always easy to stay out of the distant land. We must decide resting in His embrace is better than living apart from it.

Today, ask yourself this: “Is there any area, any situation, any circumstance, any habit, any thoughts, any actions that I have going on in my life where I willfully turn my back on God and His Word?”

Recognize it. Rise up from it. Return to God’s embrace. Refrain from going back by letting God’s life-giving Word speak into it.

No matter what our distant land is, the Lord welcomes us home with open arms.

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