Waking up to wrongdoing

A guy asks his dad for his inheritance right then. His dad gives it to him, and the son heads off to a distant land, where he squanders it all. Then a famine arises, so he has neither food nor money. He gets a job feeding pigs, and things are so desperate that he yearns to eat what the pigs are eating.

At this point, it hits him: It doesn’t have to be this way! He decides to travel back home, admit to his bad decisions and behavior, renounce his status as son, and ask his dad to take him on as a servant.

This is the first half of a parable that Christ Jesus told (see Luke 15:11–32). Haven’t we all been there, to some extent? Even if we haven’t hit rock bottom, perhaps we’ve behaved in a way that doesn’t reflect our best self, losing sight of what’s good and true about one’s identity.

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