The prodigal son as told to us in Holy Scripture, is one of those stories that resonates for so many of us, as being what we would wish to have subsequently have occurred for us to our lasting benefit, if we ourselves had gone astray; to which, despite things going horribly wrong through our selfishness and stupidity, we humbly though found our way safely back to our sanctuary home – in which, we were incredibly not only forgiven, but actually fully accepted and thus warmly welcomed back by our Heavenly Father, as if we had never left Him, on bad terms.
While there are plenty of people, that don’t believe that the prodigal son could ever be who they are or ever could be, for they believe that they are good people, that seldom have strayed into doing ego-driven mistakes – it has to be taken into full account that none of us are perfect in our constitution, in our thoughts, or in our subsequent actions. What the prodigal son so represents is what happens when we by our own volition walk away from the sanctuary and love of God, taking what we believe to be our portion of our inheritance as rightfully ours, in order to thereby indulge in sense pleasures of all types; as if this, somehow, would fairly represent the be-all and end-all of our existence and therefore our purpose in life, when this could never be.
Those that insist upon indulging in those areas and things which have no lasting discernible benefit, and are selfish in their attitude and demeanor, have got to recognize that the main reason why adversity will eventually strike someone of that sort, isn’t so much because they are sinning, but really represents a ways and means to awaken them from the delusion that the pinnacle of life, is somehow selfish indulgence. This then is why so many of us will at some point in our lives, duly suffer from some adversity that will through that suffering, serve to hopefully to rouse us from the error of our ways to recognize then that each of us is called to action for a much higher purpose, than self-serving self-indulgence.
In point of fact, when we take a careful look at people’s lives, it has to be recognized, that for a significant amount of people, what compels those that are somewhat confused about their purpose and point of life, is the type of adversity, which forces them to their knees, in the acknowledgment that they don’t know or have all of the answers, at all. Those that are lethargic, or exceeding selfish, often need to have a forceful reminder imposed upon them, that the direction of their life is not correct, which is why, as a poke to our conscience, we end up in a situation in which we are suffering. It is that suffering, that provides the impetus to thereby become a better person; though, not all answer to such a call, for humankind can be rather stubborn in its ways, until it eventually recognizes, sooner or much later, that there is indeed not only a better way, but that way is actually the only way.