My junior year in college I chaired the annual Sadie Hawkins Weekend. We decided to have a “greased pig” contest, and the college agreed to donate the pig. A greased pig contest is when a good and slippery greased down, pig is put into a pen and students try to catch the pig for a nice prize.

So, my buddies & I from the Agri Club go off to the pig pen. We picked out a shoat (small pig) and developed our plan. We were in the ankle-deep stench of mud & slop, moving in a semi-circle, cornering the pig when the pig figured out what was going on. Pigs are not stupid. He picked the weakest link to break free, me. BAM!!! The pig hit my legs so hard it knocked my feet out from under me and I hit face first into the mire. When I got up, the guys were all laughing, the pig was running free, I had tasty pig pen from ear to ear, my lip was busted, and I had to dig through the mud & pig slop to find my glasses. And it all started with what seemed like a good idea.

Jesus tells of a young man with his good idea thought. We find the story in Luke 15:12 “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.” This story is real. Many of us can insert our name into the story. The Prodigal Son story and our story all start the same, “…give me my share….” Like the young boy, many of us have chased the wild call of “freedom.” But we learn from this Lesson in God School, the enticement of born to be wild & free is a deception of the world’s “counterfeit” freedom that takes a Savior to break us free.

Jesus goes on to tell us the rest of the story. You can change the names and locations, but the result will always be the same…facedown in the pig pen. In verses 14-17, “About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.” “When he finally came to his senses…” The young boy’s God School Lab Experiment had blown up in his face. He discovered, as I did, my way did not work. It was time to leave the pig pen and go home to his dad. He returned desiring…thinking if he could only come back and be a hired servant. What he found was his dad standing…waiting at the road for his lost son. The father proudly proclaimed, “We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So, the party began.”

Maybe you are ankle deep in your pig pen hopelessly thinking, “There’s no way out.” Good News, Hope is only a cry away… “Jesus, I need you.” Jesus told us in Revelation 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

Our Heavenly Father desires you to come home to Him.