outside reading 3- Erin Comerford

As I said in my previous post, I don't get much time to do outside reading, but the last time that I did was over Spring Break. I read a book called the Prodigal God. This book was a real eye opener because it talked about the story of the prodigal son in the Bible. The story goes like this: A man has two sons and in this time, it was understood that after a father dies, his son gets to inherit his riches. But this father had two sons, which meant that the inheritance would have to be split. The thing is that the sons do not get the inheritance until the father dies, but this father's youngest son asks his father for his share of the inheritance right now because he wanted to run away from home and never come back. This is a major disobedience to his father, but his father willingly gave him the money and let him run away. The younger son spends all of his money on prostitutes and other strippers and gambling and eventually runs out. It isn't until now that he finally realizes all the harm he has done to not only himself but his father and family also. So somehow, the younger son makes the decision to go back home just to see what would happen fully knowing and thinking that his father would not accept him back. To his surprise, his father came running with open arms and embraces his son when he returns and throws a party for him too. The older son is not happy because the party they are throwing is coming out of his inheritance and he thinks it is ridiculous to treat him like this when he has done so much wrong. Anyway, the book takes a look at this parable from the view of the older son and challenges you to think if you are more like the younger or older son because both of their sin is equal. I really enjoyed reading the book, and one connection that I have been after having been through this course and looking back at this book is about sacred place. Lane gives us ways of understanding sacred place and I think it is so true that sacredness can be found in any place at all, whether inside or outside, busy and noisy or quiet and calm. This is seen in this book because sacredness is found by the younger son in a very sinful environment when he discovers that what he has done is wrong and he needs to do something about it and the father also experiences sacred place when he welcomes back his son to the house.