My Literacy Narrative of the Prodigal Son
Alex Youngwook Yoo
Dr. Sarah Spring
ENGLISH-1103-C
October 5, 2015
My Literacy Narrative of the Prodigal Son
In my junior year in high school, I dedicated my life to Christ. With this dedication, I
began to scrutinize myself and saw some areas that needed to be fixed. I was especially
frustrated with my thoughts of insecurity and inferiority. For instance, when fellow students in
the youth group became passionate for God, rather than being happy for them, I would have this
underlying fear that somehow they might surpass me as a Christian or receive more favor from
God than I would. I struggled to find a solution to this inner struggle until one night when I read
a biblical parable from Luke. The interaction between the older son and his father in the parable
of the prodigal son in Luke 15 revealed to me that God’s love cannot be earned through
performance but rather to be received through faith and helped me to overcome my insecurity.
That particular evening, I was praying to God fervently to help me with my unhealthy
insecure thoughts. Soon, I distinctly heard in my heart, "Read Luke 15." I was bit skeptical at
first, since I had no clue what was in that chapter, but I decided to open up my Bible. The chapter
contained Jesus’ famous parable of the prodigal son - a story of a father who shows his great,
merciful love to his prodigal younger son who returns home after licentiously squandering all his
inheritance. However, as I read, my eyes were drawn to a character who remains on the
sidelines: the older brother.
He refuses to attend the festival held to celebrate his brother's return. He was angry at his
father's favor and his act of mercy, saying that he had obediently worked many years like a slave
for his father but received not even a goat. For him, his father’s abundant love shown toward his
younger brother was unjustifiable and unreasonable in comparison because he had done
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absolutely nothing to earn it or to deserve it. Then, it dawned on me that I was carrying this
older son’s identity mindset: that of a slave and not of a son. He was working for the father's
approval rather than from the father's love. In other words, he was trying to earn love. Similarly,
I was ignorantly and subconsciously accepting a lie that in order to receive the love of my
heavenly Father, I have to earn it. Such thinking led me to match up my performance against
other believers. Thus, I had to outperform others spiritually and become the best of the bunch.
With this thought in mind, I was viewing my brothers and sisters as my competitors.
The father, in response to his angry son’s attitude, says to him, “Son, you are always with
me, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31).1 In saying this, the father first and foremost
affirms to his older son that he is indeed his son and not his slave. Furthermore, the father assures
him that he is aware of his son’s presence and is willing to share everything with him as an heir.
This one line of affirmation struck my heart as if God were saying it to me. I realized that God
identifies me as His son and has promised to give the same love for me as He gives to others,
apart from my performance. Reading this portion of the prodigal son led me to tearfully repent of
trying to compete with others and earn God’s love. As time went on, knowing this precious truth
about the Father’s love has helped me become free from my insecurities.
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I have used the ESV translation throughout this paper, unless otherwise noted.
Bibliography
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