Bouncing Back (Part Three)

BOUNCING BACK (part three)

In parts one and two we looked at Joseph and Paul. People like Job, Jesus, Joseph and Paul suffered hardships but they didn't do anything wrong to bring it upon themselves. Their sufferings weren't because they had sinned yet they bounced back anyway. But what about when our suffering is our fault? What if we've done someone wrong and we're suffering for it? We've sinned and now we are reaping the consequences.

When we suffer for doing the right thing we don't have to deal with the pain of our sin; we don't deal with the regrets and sorrow we have from messing up. We know the suffering we're going through is no fault of our own.

But when we have made poor choices, we're dealing with the consequences, part of which is feeling the weight of guilt and remorse. And that can push us away from God in shame; making it harder to bounce back. So how can we bounce back when we've sinned?

1) The Prodigal Son bounced back.

Let's see what enabled this wayward young man to bounce back.

Luke 15:11-20, "Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 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.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’

So he got up and went to his father."

In looking at the son's actions we can see what enabled him to begin to bounce back. The first thing he did was come to his senses. When he decided he wanted to grab his inheritance and take off he became locked in to senselessness. He partied and squandered; all the while living without any good sense. He wasn't thinking about the fact that at some point the money would run out and then what would he do?

When we're caught up in sin sense goes out the window. We don't think, or care about the consequences. We're just living in the moment; living in the land of self. But then reality hits and it's like you're waking up from a dream. That's what happened to our friend here.

He finds himself being a hired hand taking care of pigs; an unclean animal to the Jews. He became involved in unclean behavior so God put him with unclean animals. Unclean animals and Jews were not a good combination just like unclean behavior and Christians are not a good mix.

So the man who once had plenty of money and was living it up soon found himself broke and working with pigs. Although the famine played a role in his situation he still made bad choices that led him to where he was. We see the dramatic decline: at his father's house he had a nice place to live with fine food. Now he was in a pig pen longing for pig slop.

The reality of it all hit him like a slap in the face and he came to his senses; realizing he didn't need to live like this any longer. If we are going to bounce back from our sins and mistakes we will need to realize that we don't need to live in them any longer. This man saw his situation for what it was, became disgusted with it and knew he had to do something about it. He had another option to pursue.

And in his plan we can see his humility. He would tell his father he wasn't worthy to be a son but just a hired hand. He knew he had messed up and was willing to accept the demotion. Bouncing back takes humility; we recognize our wrongdoing and accept responsibility. When we justify, rationalize, minimize or excuse our mistakes we won't bounce back from them, we'll just end up repeating them.

"He got up and went to his father". He follows through with the plan. He didn't just wish or dream, he took action. When we do wrong we might think of things to improve our situation but then we dismiss it, thinking, 'that'll never happen' or 'I can't do that'. We can talk ourselves out of trying to bounce back. The Prodigal son didn't do that. He thought of a plan and then he enacted it. He took the necessary steps that would determine whether or not his plan would work.