What Can the Prodigal Son Teach Us about Hitting Rock Bottom?
Share
Ten years ago, I was a stay-at-home mom with two small children. My husband was working a new job that took him out of town during the week. We were adjusting to this new season and hopeful about getting out of debt and starting fresh. Our hopes were punched when I came home one evening with the kids and found the house freezing cold because our heat pump had given up.
I was already stressed from this new normal and was totally unprepared for this! There was no emergency fund and the person I counted on to take care of things like this was hundreds of miles away. At that point, I just gathered every blanket we had and put the kids in fleece pajamas. Once they were asleep, I sat at the kitchen table shivering and cried. I had hit rock bottom.
Since then, I have hit rock bottom a few more times. But I recently learned that while hitting rock bottom hurts in the moment, it is essential to building a stronger relationship with God. This point could not be plainer than in the story of the prodigal son.
The prodigal son teaches us what hitting rock bottom truly is, how we can prevent it, and how it can be the best thing to ever happen to us.
The Prodigal Son
The parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most well-known of all the parables. It is found in Luke 15:11-32. There is a father with two sons. The younger son asks his father for his inheritance. His father grants his request, and the younger son takes his money and leaves for a distant land. On his journeys, he squanders all his inheritance.
The younger son has no money, and a famine takes over the land. Finding himself in a dire situation, he takes a job feeding pigs. He is so hungry he desires to eat the food the pigs are eating. He sees his situation as hopeless and decides to return home to his father, hoping to be hired as a servant. But his father receives him with open arms. There is feast held for him and the son is forgiven.
Hitting Rock Bottom Means Leaving Home
Hitting rock bottom is when we find ourselves with no hope or faith in anything. We examine our situation and wonder how we got there. When I was sitting at my kitchen table freezing and crying, I was so angry. I was a Christian and I firmly believed that my God would take care of my family. But at the moment, I didn’t think he was taking care of us. He was actually making life harder.
The prodigal son was from a wealthy, devout, Jewish family. He grew up learning that Yahweh would never leave His people. When he decided to take his inheritance and leave, he did not see the consequences his decision would have. He was going into a pagan land where His God was not worshiped. When he left home, he was leaving God’s will for his life.
My husband and I had ventured into a pagan land too. We had placed too much importance on money, cars, restaurants, and clothing. We were living a “champagne life” that our Kool-Aid wallets could not sustain. Our choices were selfish. They were driven by a sense of entitlement. If everyone else could have a nice home, a new car, and clothes not from a thrift store, then why couldn’t we have the same? Without knowing, we had walked away from God, the same as the son taking his inheritance and leaving home.
Hitting Rock Bottom Is Preventable
I believe we all have hit rock bottom at some point, so why would I suggest that it can be prevented? Because like in the parable of the Prodigal Son, there are alarm bells that God will ring for us.
In the parable, the son asks for his share of the estate before the death of his father (Luke 15:11). This was unusual. His father was very much alive and well. Then the son gathers all he has and leaves for a land that is full of worldly living (Luke 15:13). The entire scenario is adding up to a disaster, but the son is not seeing it.
After leaving, the son finds himself in a pagan land penniless, hungry, and essentially homeless. He is feeding pigs which, for a Jew, would have been a demeaning job (Luke 15:15), but he still does not see the error of his ways. Instead of considering going back home, he is considering eating what he feeds the pigs.
My husband and I did not heed any warnings about preparing for an emergency. We were strolling through life believing that all would be well. God did send us warnings like the heat pump making weird noises for quite some time and people were always telling us to prepare for the future.
What we learned is that God was speaking, and we were not listening. God will use people, sermons, Scripture, feelings of discontentment and anger, and events to warn us of our sinful choices. We just have to have open minds, ears, and hearts.
Hitting Rock Bottom Can Be the Best Thing to Happen to Us
Why would anyone believe hitting rock bottom could be the best thing for them? Because hitting rock bottom brings desperation to our lives. If we always lived on cloud nine, we would never fully know the glory of our God.
The difficult circumstances the prodigal son faced made him realize how much he needed his father. He most likely would never have come home if he still had money, food, and a content life. Proverbs 20:30 says “Lashes and wounds purge away evil, and the beatings cleanse the innermost parts.” For the prodigal son, working as a servant feeding pigs was his cleansing. For me, it was my family being cold and realizing I could have prevented it if I had only heeded the advice God sent to me.
When the prodigal son returned home, he only asked to be a servant in his father’s household (Luke 15:19). His father chose to welcome him back with all the privileges of being his son (Luke 15:22-24). The son had learned a lesson through his hardship. He had grown and understood he needed his father, just as we need our heavenly father.
God placed the right people in our lives so we could get a new heat pump. The next night, my kiddos were warm and toasty. I knew then, I had strayed from a loving God, and I needed to get my life back on track. My God was always taking care of my family, I just wasn’t looking or listening. Without this trial I would not have grown closer to God.
“I had heard reports about you, but now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:5).
Lesson Learned
Hitting rock bottom is hard. None of us want to get to that point because, like the prodigal son, we may have to admit we did not listen to the alarm bells God was sounding. If we listen to those bells and get back in God’s will, we can prevent ourselves from hitting rock bottom. But we can also take heart that in times we feel we are hitting rock bottom, we will only grow closer to our gracious God.
Charles Dickens said the parable of the prodigal son is “the finest short story ever written.” I am inclined to agree. In just a few short verses, we learn an incredible lesson. Our God never wants us to stray from Him, but when we do, we are welcomed back with loving arms.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/simpson33
