Monday, May 19, 2014

The Lost Son

Jesus’ parable of the lost son in Luke 15 is one of my favorites and speaks to me of the deep love of the Father as he waited for his lost son to return home. About two years ago I counseled a young man who, in many ways, was like this lost son. Jeff (not his real name), called me because he was in trouble with the police for having crossed sexual boundaries with an underage young woman. Jeff actually was arrested and served a year in prison for the numerous offenses he pleaded guilty to; I counseled him in prison weekly for nearly a year. One of Jeff’s homework assignments was to write his own version of “The Lost Son” and share it with me. I am sharing it with you today. Names and some references have been changed to protect Jeff’s identity.
 

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I was a happy young boy growing up with my parents on the Georgia farm, but then I started the transition for boyhood to adulthood. I no longer liked what my parents were doing for me; I wanted to live on my own and have fun. I was convinced that I knew more than they and that the spiritual atmosphere of my home was keeping me from having a good time and was keeping me from becoming successful in life.
 
I started partying and hanging out with all the wrong people in my Georgia community. My parents were worried sick and so they asked me if I would want to move to Pennsylvania where some of my parents’ relatives lived. At first I didn’t want to, but then I thought I might have more freedom in Pennsylvania and be able to live it up more, so I agreed to move. Luke 15:13 says the conceited young man took off for a distant country, and Lancaster County in Pennsylvania was my distant country.
 
This lost son (me), wanted to “sow his wild oats” – he wanted to have a “fling.” I had not yet learned that one of God’s unchangeable laws it that we reap what we sow. I was attracted by the allurements of the world and I misused my money, in other words, I had my fling; I invested my life in sinful pleasures. I believed that to be happy one must indulge in the pleasures of the world and really live it up! So I partied hard and got drunk every weekend. I bought my first car and wasted my money and also started going out with a young woman who was way too young for me. I crossed sexual boundaries with her and then one night we were caught by the police.
 
The arrest made me understand that I had reached the end of my out-of-control road. I had run against a wall, so to speak; as it was with the lost son in Luke 15, I had “run out of money.” My “friends” all left me and I didn’t know what to do. I actually thought about taking my own life, but something kept me from doing that.

The police came to my house one day and took me to prison. I thought my charges would go away and I would be free, but instead, I found myself in the worst kind of bondage. Such is the power of sin; it usually starts off as a small, seemingly innocent thing, but continues to grow. I squandered my money, lost my “inheritance,” wasted all the spiritual things I had learned, and now I found myself in prison. I was in a deep pit emotionally, and really depressed. The four walls of my prison cell made me sick. This is the picture of the condition of every sinful person. Sin may satisfy for a short time, but soon brings one to a place of unhappiness and disappointment.

I sat in prison and began to think of my home and my parents in Georgia, and how good I had it there. I asked one of the prison guards for a Bible and began reading. My spiritual values had been twisted and lost by my months of rebellion and wild living, but now I was beginning to see life more clearly, from a spiritual point of view. I began to realize that not only had I done evil things, but I had sinned against God and my family, and I had also, through my immoral actions, harmed another person and her family.

Luke 15:17 says “he came to himself” – that is, he reflected on what had happened since he left home; this is exactly what I was doing now. I remembered the days of my childhood when I used to play with my older brother; I remembered the smell of the good old farm, and the bedtime prayers my parents taught me when I was a little boy. God permits hardship and “famine” to come into our lives in order to cause us to think on what we really have or have had in life.

These thoughts brightened into a resolution: I would return to God. That night I got down on my knees in my cell, I cried and prayed, and told God I had sinned and wanted to come back to him. I confessed all my sin to God and asked for his forgiveness and began to feel the weight of my sin lift from off my shoulders.

In that same spirit of confession and repentance I wrote numerous letters to people I had wronged and told them of the change in my life, confessed my sin to them, and asked their forgiveness. I was also able to talk with my parents on the phone and confess to them. To my astonishment, everyone rejoiced when they read the letters I had sent them and they wrote back to me and assured me I was forgiven. My father also traveled the 1000-plus miles just to see me; when we met in the prison Dad greeted me with open arms, a kiss, and crying at the same time! I will never forget his words of forgiveness to me.

I am still in prison, but I have made a 180 degree change and am looking forward to a new life when I get out in a few months. I will always remember, with gratitude, this picture in Luke 15 of God as a loving Father who delights in forgiving his lost children who return to him. He longs to see people lay aside their sinful lifestyle and come to repentance. The road back home for me was hard and humbling and required confession and repentance, but God is waiting to forgive anyone who comes to him! I also learned that the true Christian brother/sister rejoices when a lost son/daughter repents; he/she will never look coldly on some poor sinner who limps back to Father God!

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Jeff was released from prison in May 2013. He is now living with family relatives in central Pennsylvania and doing well.

 
Submitted by Tom Horst
Marriage and Family Therapist

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