Confessions of a Prodigal Son

Life is about creating a story. The story we write or create is based on the decisions we make banded together with His story. So often we think we have total and ultimate control over our decisions and to some degree we do. Often we are allowed the opportunity to live our life a certain way, where our Father allows us to learn the hard lessons in life, sometimes painful, challenging and can reveal the worst parts of ourselves. This week I previewed the new movie Confessions of a Prodigal Son. The movie depicts a coming of age young man who experiences the struggles we all face when trying to figure out life and the story we will write in our lives.

Personally, I experienced this same coming of age. From 18-25 I was figuring out who I was as an adult and who I was as a person outside my parents home, aside from my parents, who was I in this enormous and sometimes confusing world. Around ages 25-35 I was figuring out who I was as a woman, wife and mother. From the time I was 35 I was figuring out who I was in the world all over again. What was my purpose? What was the meaning of my life? Somehow I made my way back to my Father, where I began to embrace and understand my purpose, the meaning to life, in my life.

The story tells of how we stumble and fall. We are all struggling to find our way in the world, our world, His world and are afraid to conform to the ways of our Father at times. Placing so much pressure on ourselves to fit in with the rest of the world, to feel some acceptance, to fit in with others. What we fail to stop and see, accept, is that He is calling us back to him, that God accepts us for who we are in all our faults, fears, strengths, beauty. Our faults do not define who we are as people.

The movie follows a bit of the life of Sean (Nathan Clarkson) as he rebels and leaves his home, family and father (Kevin Sorbo) to figure out life on his own. Two years later–while still on the journey to find life’s answers–Sean suddenly finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew as he is confronted by a professor (Darwin Harris) who challenges Sean to see his life as a story; a best friend (Azel James) walking a dangerous path; and a strong and beautiful young woman (Rachael Lee) who is on her own journey to answers. Each one of these elements causes Sean to greater examine the choices he is making.

The story is one of drama, laughter, relationships, faith, and redemption, ultimately asking the question “Can broken stories have happy endings?”

The timing could not be more appropriate as we lead into the Easter season. Easter is known as a time of new beginnings, redemption, beautiful changes. Confessions of a Prodigal Son tells the famous story Jesus shared and happy endings can happen for broken people. We can all change from stumbling through life, to living a life with the love of God. Despite all our struggles and hurt we always have a Father who loves us just who we are and welcomes us back into his loving arms to change our lives, our story, through Him. Confessions of a Prodigal Son is available for pre-order through Amazon, WalMart, Family Christian and iTunes where it will be released on Tuesday March 24th. Want to see it on the big screen? You can request a screening in your area. Enjoy a timeless Biblical story retold for the relevancy of our day in age.