Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ So he set off and went to his father.
Sometimes we can be “lost” without knowing it. Yet, by God’s grace, we have moments of “coming to ourselves,” as Jesus said, or “coming to our senses,” as we might say today. When we see ourselves clearly, when we admit our need, we recognize our lostness, then we are ready to turn to the Lord so that we might be found.
In Jesus’s parable of The Prodigal Son. This young man, perhaps better called the lost son, chose to live extravagantly, thus losing all of his money and ending up starving while feeding pigs for a living. He had truly lost his way. But finally “he came to himself,” as Jesus puts it (Luke 15:17). We might say he came to his senses. He saw himself clearly. He recognized his desperate situation. This recognition enabled him to begin to turn his life around. The biblical language for this is repentance. The lost son’s repentance was a crucial step forward in his journey to becoming found.
Perhaps you made poor choices and began to feel their negative implications. For a while, you may have been able to ignore your situation. But then something happened to open your eyes. Like the lost son feeding pigs or my lost son in the park, you began to look at yourself clearly, to see the quandary you had made for yourself. You were finally ready to turn in a new direction.
If you’re in a difficult place in your life today, perhaps need a fresh experience of “coming to yourself.” Why don’t you ask the Lord to help you with this? If you’re in a good place today, I expect you know others who aren’t. Let me encourage you to lift them to the Lord, asking for the grace of a “coming to themselves” moment. When we realize that we are lost, we’re finally in a place to be found.
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