What Are You Settling For?
Southeast Christian Church The story of the prodigal son is one that most of us are likely familiar with. This parable that Jesus told can be found in Luke 15:11-32. Verses 11 through 14 say: Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.
In the beginning of this parable, the younger son is tired of living under the rules and reign of his father. And even though he knows where all his meals are going to come from, and his father has been great to him, he sees and wants another kind of life in a distant country. The distant country that he saw on the horizon was different than what was under his father's care. So, he heads to a place where his father's rule, his father's decisions, and his father's provision aren’t.
Then we read that this younger son squanders all his wealth in wild living. He made some bad investments. He put his money, his energy, and his time in places that didn't pan out and all of sudden hard times hit, and he steps into this season of lack. He's never experienced this before because he was under his father’s care and provision. In a moment of desperation, Luke 15:16 tells us that, “He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.”
In his father’s home, he never would have hungered or yearned for pods that were fed to pigs. He finds himself starting to long for things that he never ever, in his wildest dreams, would've ever, ever settled for when he was at his father’s house.
Discussion/Reflection Question: When have you found yourself yearning for something that you would have never settled for in the past?
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