A Long and Winding Road

A Long and Winding Road

We may not all remember the Beetles song, “The Long and Winding Road,” because some of you are so young. So, here is the first verse:

The Long and Winding Road

That Leads Me to Your Door

Will Never Disappear

I’ve Seen that Road Before

It Always Leads Me Here

Lead Me to Your door…

This—to me—is the metaphor of spiritual life.

The prodigal son leaves to go on a journey far away from the protection of his father’s money and love to find that separation from home isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Empty handed and beaten down, he returns home.

The husband leaves his wife for the sexy secretary only to find that she is needy, wants a father not a partner, and is completely codependent. The husband begs for the forginess of the wife to return to true love.

The child leaves school to marry his young love and get a minimum wage job, only to find that responsibility and being a young father is much harder than he could have ever imagined. He goes back to his parents and asks for their support until he can go back to school and do what they intended for him.

These hard lessons metaphorically all lead us back to the door of God.

The problem is most of us, once we have made mistakes and have left religion or a spiritual walk, are afraid to knock at God’s door. But I tell you, the scriptures couldn’t make it clearer in the story of the prodigal son, that God is always waiting with His/Her arms open for you to come home into the love that never left you. Don’t waste your time in self-flagellations and remorse, return to love.

I’m probably one of the few people who I know who have never had a falling away from the God experience. No matter how much I did that may have looked like it was outside the realm of spirituality, I never stopped believing that God was right by my side. So, to tell you the truth, I can’t even imagine what it would feel like to be in the dark without God. That thought scares the BeJesus out of me. (For you nonsoutherners, BeJesus is a southern heightened slang for Jesus.)

I meet people, however, who have told me stories of leaving religion behind because of being rejected from church and pastors because they were gay or had caused some unpardonable sin like divorce. They were treated like cast aways. It’s no wonder they projected that this was God throwing them into the fires of an angry world…

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