OR
When We Come To Ourselves
his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran,
and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
Luke 15:20
...A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Luke 15:11-21.
I want to focus your attention on the bolded text in that passage of scripture: "And when he came to himself...". The scriptures tell us the Prodigal Son had squandered his money on "riotous living". Webster defines riotous as "engaging in wanton (unrestrained, reckless) behavior". To those of us who have "been there, done that", we know it is dangerous, yet those behaving in such a manner cannot (or will not) see the danger they are in. We refused to see it (or we refused to admit it) when we were living like the prodigal, didn't we?
This young man must surely have been desperately hungry to consider eating corn husks with the swine. I was raised in the country and we had a number of hogs. Our setup was not the stainless steel enclosures pigs are kept in today--our swine were in a backlot (even so, a good shift in a steady wind and we caught their stench). They rivalled Daddy's tractor for turning over soil. It was not an inviting place to be. Corn husks, when our Father's table awaits us?
A great many of us have had our own pigpen experience because we insisted on hurtling along at breakneck speed down the wrong paths of life, making one bad decision after another. Nah, our lifestyle wasn't going to harm us. We were going to be different, we were going to be the exception. Guess what? We weren't. We wound up in the same muck and mire of life that this young man did.
You did notice that the scriptures did not mention any of his "friends" or those with whom he had been doing his riotous living, being in the pigpen with him, did you? His winding up in the pigpen meant he had no resources ("friends" OR family) left to support his habits.
Sometimes, we go to such great lengths to keep our loved ones, especially our children, out of the pigpen--we become "enablers". We are so anxious to try to protect them...and in our efforts, we become cushion zones for the aftermath of their misdeeds! The hardest thing for a loved one to do is to step back and watch the fall of another. Remember, it was in the pigpen, separated from his "friends" and with no means to continue his wanton way of life, that the prodigal son's mind cleared: "And when he came to himself...".
I just love that phrase: "And when he came to himself...". As ugly as it is, that's where each of us who stubbornly insist on "doing things our way", have to finally get, by whatever means we insist upon, before lasting changes can be made. And recovery involves three major steps: We have to realize where we are; we have to admit what we've done to get there, and we have to set about to do things differently. Skipping or excluding any one of those three steps will not make the changes that need to be made.
Great lessons are to be found in pigpens: very hard lessons, and most of the time, we come out with only a few rags in our possession. Everything else is gone. Now we can do one of two things: blame the world and have crutches the rest of our lives, or take hold of the reins of our lives and move on.
A mother told us that she had prayed faithfully for her son, that God protect him at all costs. He was into both sides of the drug trade: selling and using. She loved her son dearly, she didn't want him to die in that pigpen, without any hope of redemption--thus her prayers for his safety. Then one day during prayer, the Holy Spirit led her to pray differently: "Wake him up, Father, to the reality of his life and let him see what he is doing. Whatever it takes, Father, save his soul. If it means taking his life, save his soul."
A hard prayer to pray, especially for a parent! I warn people, don't pray it if you don't mean it, because God answers prayer. And surely enough, within a few days, everything came together for this young man: he was arrested and confined where he could not get to his drugs. As he "came to himself", he began to realize what he had been doing and what it had cost him: his wife and children, his home, his possessions, his relationships with those who cared the most for him. He began to cry out to God.
There are those who say "jailhouse religion" doesn't last. To an extent, they are right. If one cries out to God merely for the purpose of getting out of "tight spot" and then turns their back on God when the situation is over, they haven't learned from their pigpen experience. There will be another. And I want you to know, "religion", in and of itself, has no powers of redemption. Yet, I know of many who have turned to God in jailhouses, and have submitted their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been forever changed, Praise God! Changed, by salvation through Jesus Christ! Hallelujah! Yet, it took a PIGPEN experience to do it!
"Religion" won't do it! It is soul-saving salvation, through Jesus Christ, that will redeem our eternal soul and it lasts forever and ever and ever! It is heartfelt desperation that drives us to our knees in our pigpens. Then, and only then, we can "come to ourselves". And as we come to ourselves, we can realize our need for better than what we have had, realizing we don't have the answers. We are only making a mess of things! But we have to "come to ourselves" first, wherever that may be. And more often than not, it's in a pigpen of our own making!
You got a loved one living with the pigs? Love them enough to ask God to let them "come to themselves". It may be a hard route back to life as life should be, but let's face it, most of us insist on hard lessons, don't we? And those who are living with the pigs will have to have an "in-your-face" hard lesson to get the message across. But they don't have to stay in the pigpen. They can come home and eat with the Father. They can put on the robes of royalty once again--the royalty of being an heir of God and joint-heir of Jesus Christ, our King. Don't you want that for them?
Out of the pigpen and into the secure folds of Jesus' arms! Wrapped in the royal robes of salvation, crown of life upon their head. Out of the muck and mire and into the mansion of the body of Christ!
May God bless you abundantly and give you the desires of your heart, meeting every need in your life.
"Pigpens" Copyright © 2000 by Patricia Sikes.
All Rights Reserved.
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