From “I Could” To “I Will”

So he got up and went to his father.
Luke 15:20 (NIV)

Jesus tells a parable about a son who leaves his father’s house, wastes what he’s been given, and ends up broken and starving in a far country. When he finally comes to his senses, the story turns on one decisive movement: He gets up and goes home.

Before he moves, he measures his current life against what he knows is available with his father. The capacity to measure my current situation—not against those who are worse off than me, but against what’s actually possible and available to me—is key. It’s about the comparison that calls me upward and not the comparison that comforts me in my persisting compromise. That kind of comparison exposes the lie of “good enough.”

Once that comparison is made, the turning point is a choice. “I will arise and go back to the Father.” Not just “I could.” Not just “I should.” So many people are stuck in the valley between “I could” and “I will.”

But the text says he got up. He moved. He started walking.

And the hope of the passage is not only that the Father receives him. It’s that the Father comes toward him. The Father doesn’t wait for you to get all the way home. If He knows you are trying to get there and sees you out in the field, He’s willing to come out there and get you.

So the path is clear. Remember what is possible with God. Move from thought to decision. And trust that the Father will meet you on the way back home.