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.
- from Luke 15:29

The older son in the parable we’ve been looking at this week has a problem.

He has a fantastic résumé: years of continuous employment, lots of hard work, good performance reviews. He worked and worked and worked and never got what he considered to be a meaningful reward. He worked like a slave.

But he wasn’t a slave.

His résumé didn’t just have an “Experience” section; it also had a “References” section. The servants on the family farm knew his place in the family and showed him deference for it. His father cared about him and affirmed his status in the family. Respected as an employer and loved as a son, this man still saw himself as a slave.

We all have multiple sections on our personal résumés: a section for our performance and a section for our relationships. Self-righteousness takes over when we let our performance section take charge, define our identity, and assign us value.

Our place in God’s family is secured because of our relationships, not because of our performance.

So, what do we do, then?

One temptation is to give up on performance. If performing well can make us self-righteous, maybe we should take the path of the younger son and party until we crash. But God values obedience and faithfulness. And walking out our faith impacts people around us and makes a difference in the world.

No, we should work in the field. But we should do more than that.

Our priority should be our relationship with our heavenly Father and with the people he’s placed in our lives. Through these relationships, we can learn to work and labor in ways that are life-giving and healthy.

In what ways do you try to earn your place in God’s family? How does your relationship with God influence your obedience to him?