One of my favorite parables is the story of the prodigal son.

The story goes like this: A father had two sons.  The younger was, well, young and thought he knew better.  He wanted his inheritance, and his father gave it to him.  He went away, blew all of the money on wine, women, and song, and ended up in the most degrading place he could think of, fighting not to starve.

Then something great happens.  The words in the Bible say that “…he came to himself…”.*  We’ll be back here in a second.

After this, the son realizes that even his dad’s servants were better off, and that he’d go home and beg to be a servant.  When he gets home, his father runs to meet him and welcomes his lost son back into the family, not as a servant, but as a son.  (There’s a bit more, so go read it in Luke 15).

As I emphasized before, there’s a huge turning point in this story.  The son comes to himself.  Meaning he comes back from his rebellious stage to the truth.  The words also imply that something happened inside the son.  They imply there is some point that we should all be at, and we can get away from, but we must choose to head towards.

This is important.  God will let us run away from Him.  He will always be there, but He won’t force you to stay.  It’s a choice.  And you and I choose.  When the son “came to himself” he chose to go back.  It’s subtle.  We control our direction.  We can either go away from God, or go toward Him.

So, if we’re away from God, we must make the choice to go back.  If we are near Him, we must make the choice to stay.

It’s all about coming to myself.

* The ESV and the KJV say “came to himself” and the NIV says “came to his senses”.  Same idea.

[ Image by h.koppdelaney ]