Coming to yourself

Luke 15:

16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

17 "But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 

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This short section from the Prodigal Son parable impacted me yesterday as I listened during my daily walk.  The phrase "But when he came to himself..." jumped out.  It occurred that we have different sides to our personality (not multiple personalities...that's just scary!).  And somewhere deep inside is the real person, the soul, the spirit, the heart...the real person.  We have outer layers that we wear to have a certain impact on others and to feel good about ourselves, but they are almost like clothing to cover and protect our inner self.  I suspect that we can go years without having a meaningful conversation with ourselves, but at some point we really need to.  Our inner self is the life we were given...for we did not give ourselves our lives.  Instead we spend a lifetime grappling with life's meaning, all the while knowing that the life we were given will one day be taken as well.

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Just as the Prodigal Son, we need to come to the end of the window dressing that makes up our outer person...the one driven by selfish desires and short term ambitions.  We need to have a sit down, look self in the face, heart-to-heart with the life deep inside.  When we do that, we are humbled and we realize that, just as we can't explain how our lives came to be...so we can't control where our lives will ultimately go.

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And like the Prodigal Son, until we come to ourselves we'll never come home to God...never feel His loving embrace as He runs to greet us!

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blessing,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."