Working Through Prodigal Situations In Life

See an update on this post here!

Dealing with prodigal situations is something that’s common to all of us.

We may play any one, or even all, of the roles at different times during our lives.

In keeping with my stated intention of writing about anything and everything on this blog, today I am quoting from a religious text that has parallels in other religions.

Many people would be familiar with the story of the prodigal, or lost son, who Jesus spoke about in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 11:15 – 32)

I wonder how many people deal with prodigal situations in their own lives though? And how many of us, rather than being the prodigal, have been in the place of the father, or elder brother?

A number of people could probably identify with all three at some stage of their lives!

In the Biblical account, the prodigal asks for his inheritance before his father dies, and then goes off and wastes it, ending up feeding pigs, and scavenging with them for food.

This is as low as anyone could go in that culture, as pigs are considered an unclean animal by both Jews and Muslims.

Coming to his senses, the son returns home, declaring that he no longer has the right to call himself a son, and begs to be taken back as a servant.

The father embraces him, throws a party and restores him to his former position.

Returning from the fields, the older brother hears the party in full swing, chucks a wobbly and starts complaining and pouting!

This is the character that I want to talk about today.

This post was inspired by a comment left on my blog a few days ago, and in figuring how to answer, I came up with this post!

In the parable, the father consoles the elder son, saying that all he had had to do was ask, and he’d have thrown him a party too!

As a matter of fact, he said that everything he owned was in fact his too!

So often in life, jealousy and unforgiveness, especially in light of real or imagined preferential treatment, can result in a person being effectively bound for years.

Whatever the reason for the prodigal situation, be it drugs, alcohol, debt, violence etc., there comes a time when the prodigal wants to come home.

But will we let them?

If we are in the father’s situation, are we prepared to forgive, embrace and move on?

Then again, if we are the prodigal, are we prepared to ask forgiveness of those that we have offended?

In the case of being the elder sibling, the one who didn’t go off the rails, are we prepared to accept the new turn of events, and embrace the prodigal with the father?

Away from the spiritual interpretation, this scenario is reenacted in families everywhere to some degree or another.

I often wonder if the sibling is jealous that the prodigal got to party and have a good time, and then get accepted back?

Did he secretly want to do the same thing, but because of fear and sense of duty held back?

Wouldn’t this attitude be just as bad?

When I was younger, I was a rebel, and a prodigal, and it was a long, hard road back.

Quite simply, I wasn’t a very nice person, and needed an awful lot of grace to get it back together.

Now, as a father, I watch over my children with a renewed love and respect for my parents…

Over the past few years, I have watched as people that seemingly had it all together went and blew it all.

And all the time I wonder just how forgiving and accepting I can be when I hear the sounds of partying and rejoicing as the prodigal returns…

What about your experience? Will you join in the party?

Are we prepared to allow people freedom of choice, even if they make the wrong decisions?

And even more important, are we prepared to forgive, and accept them back?

It appears to me that the father in this story had forgiven before that was even asked of him. Can we do that?

I’d love your feedback on this!

Please Note:

I’m not trying to convert anyone to anything here.

I’ve used this text to illustrate what can, and does happen in even the best families.

See an update on this post here!