Prodigal Me?

I’ve been reading the New Testament of the Bible as part of a dare that our Pastor made to our congregation last month. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m-9UucxDrA&t=80s
Pastor Brandon challenged us to read the entire New Testament in 100 days.  This guided reading is how I stumbled back upon the parable of the prodigal son. The parable is found in Luke 15.


The parable of the prodigal son is one of my favorites. Different seasons of my life have offered fresh harvests of insight.  Lately, the thought “I am the prodigal daughter” has played in a loop through my mind.  I was the prodigal daughter in the past. In my late teens, I wandered off course, led by a broken heart. Once I was back in the Way, my relationship with Christ healed my brokenness and set my feet on a sure path.


How is it, then, that a little over twenty years later I am again pondering life as the prodigal daughter? Hadn’t I made it past that point? The specific verse that got me thinking was verse 13. “Not long after that (after asking his dad to give him his inheritance) the younger son got together all he had and set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.”


The prodigal son had to leave his father’s house to make these choices.  He was no longer under his father’s protection even though he was still his father’s son. When I purposefully make choices that are outside of God’s plan I open myself up to consequences that could be avoided by simply staying close to my heavenly Father.

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        I am the prodigal daughter when I spend all my money on frivolousness and don’t honor God with my tithe.

·         I am the prodigal daughter when I go my own way, when I chronically and consistently desert my family for my own pursuits. I have been entrusted with this gift of family, and when I don’t take care of my gift, I am not honoring God.

·         I am the prodigal daughter when I wear myself out and don’t enter into a Sabbath rest.

·         I am the prodigal daughter returned and welcomed by my Father, when I realize how empty I am and how much I still need him 20 years later. 

After I wrote those words, I began to think about the older brother from the story, the one who stayed with his father and became jealous and angry at how extravagantly his father’s love was expressed when his younger brother came home.

·         I am the older sister who stayed with my father when I shake my head in contempt at my sister’s poor choices instead of watching with my Father for her to come home.

·         I am the older sister when I pridefully look at my life and believe that my loyalty and positive choices make me righteous.

·         I am the older sister when I resent my younger sister being blessed and lose sight of the fact that I am offered the same lavish love as she.

·         I am the older sister when I compare myself to my younger sister and envy her new position. For envy rots the bones (Proverbs 14:30)

Envy (also) leads to jealousy

Jealousy leads to hate.

Hate leads to anger.

And anger leads to the Dark Side.

                  ---Yoda, Star Wars Episode I