To Lance Armstrong...with Love

Dear Lance, we watched these last two nights as you began to make peace with yourself and asked for the chance to make peace with us. In other times, we watched as you turned your great athletic gift into a symphony of victories. We also watched and prayed that you were really cured of the cancer that menaced your life and we joined your crusade to find more cures for the deadly disease. We watched and hoped you were 'clean', knowing that no one in your sport was. And now, we grieve at your fall from grace, we are angry and detest the system that degraded you, and we are humiliated to learn that you, our icon, are human after all. But, we loved you in your golden years and we love you now...disgraced and contrite. We pray, we watch, we encourage you to win this last, greatest race you will ever run - the race back to our waiting hearts and to your own self-respect...back to grace. To those who now curse you, I offer the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Are we not all prodigals seeking forgiveness and our loved ones' welcoming arms. God bless you, Lance... our father, husband, brother, son. God bless.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Parable of the Prodigal Son. St. Luke 15:11-32.  Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: 'Father I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with love and threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘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 when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost, and us found.' ~~~~~~ The Holy Bible. New International Version (NIV).