Make Good or Make Way

I have known a troop who has a sign posted in their meeting place that reads “make good or make way”. They send letters to scouts who don’t attend regularly threatening them with removal from the troop. Part of scouting is dealing with our prodigal sons.

These are the scouts who dissapear from time to time without any explaination. When they reappear we do best to follow the model of the father in the parable and recieve them with open arms and kill the fatted calf, not drawing attention to their shortcomings in a letter. This doesn’t sound fair to the scouts who attend regularly and it didn’t sound fair to the faithful son in the parable. But the father replied: “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 is found.” ( Luke 15:11-32)