|

Hold Up, Wait A Minute!
I’ve Had Enough of This Pig Slop
By Gail Davis
We have heard the familiar story about the
prodigal son – you know the one who asked
his father for his inheritance and having
received it prematurely, went and squandered
it on wild and reckless living, then ended
up feeding the pigs to survive (Luke
15:11-32). For many of us, we think life in
the pig pen is beyond our sphere of
environments, we can’t relate to it because
no rational person will allow themselves to
go there, not under normal circumstances
anyway.
On the contrary, I am here to tell you that
all of us, at one time or another, has had
what I call a
‘pig slop moment.’
That is a place, and it is not a physical
pig pen, but a place where you find yourself
in a position of worthlessness – you are at
your worse; a repulsive place that
absolutely disgusts you, a place where
mediocrity, despair and darkness abound, and
a place that smells so badly it makes you
say “Yuk!” because of the things you do.
The joy and revelation the story of the
prodigal son brings to us is that there is a
better way. The Bible says
‘when he came to his senses…’
that is a
Hold Up, Wait A Minute!
moment. That is the moment you recognize
there is a better way or you recognize that
you are someone special and you belong to
someone special, and something better is at
your disposal. The story continues on to say
that his father threw him a party and
received him back with open arms, gave him
new clean clothes, and bestowed honor upon
him for him coming to his senses.
Let me explain some pig slop moments then
maybe you will be able to relate to the
prodigal son and say, ‘yeah, I have been in
that place ’or ‘I am still in that place and
want to get out!’
Some Pig Slop Moments
When you find yourself in a place where
you are tired, fed up, and you don’t
want to do this anymore, you are ready
for transformation. That’s what a pig
slop moment is.
Have you ever gone to a bar or a party,
had a few drinks, picked someone up and
brought them home with you? Then when
you awaken in the morning you roll over
to discover that you don’t remember how
they got there or what their name is and
you say, ‘what was I thinking?’ That’s a
pig slop moment – you have done it for
the last time, you are tired of waking
up with strangers and it has left a bad
taste in your mouth.
Here are some other examples of pig slop
moments:
-
You’re in an abusive relationship,
physically and/or emotionally and
you find yourself on the floor
curled up in a fetal position
holding your body and then it hits
you like a ton of bricks ‘hold up
wait a minute!’ – what am I doing
here?
-
You’re addicted to something that is
destructive and causes you grief and
discomfort. It could be a substance,
sex, video games, or lying and
gossip
-
You stay in a relationship with a
married person or someone you know
you are not supposed to be with -
that is settling for mediocrity
-
You’re controlling and manipulative
and you find yourself cut off from
people, no one wants to be around
you anymore
You may have your own pig slop moment to
add to this list that is personal and
pertains to your situation since you
were there at one time, or you are still
there now.
I know for me, the straw that broke the
camel’s back was being in a relationship
(nine years ago) with a player, an old
player at that, who had several women in
addition to the one he was living with.
Call it mediocrity at its finest. Why?
Because when you settle for paging
someone instead of being able to call
them at home, that is mediocrity -- I
knew about it and stayed there anyway
(it was the sex). As a matter of fact I
spent several years in a life of
promiscuity after leaving my husband,
dabbling with different men searching
for God knows what – thrills, comfort, a
good time, love, yet all I got after the
thrill was gone was a dirty feeling,
like I was giving something in me of
value away. I was never satisfied, and I
knew there was more to me than my tail.
That was the pig slop moment for me, and
when I came to my senses and said, “Hold
up wait a minute!” I wondered why I was
settling for mediocrity when I was
someone’s queen, their number one, what
is my problem? Once I thought “I don’t
want to be like this anymore!” there was
a shift in the spirit realm.
All of us are not in a prodigal son’s
relationship. For those people who never
had an opportunity to have a
relationship with the Lord or know about
the promises in His Word, let me tell
you, God loves you too, and has only the
best for you. The best part for you is
there are occasions when the Lord
himself has a hold up wait a minute
moment for you; when you don’t know
there is a better way, that there is a
loving Father waiting for you.
What’s Holding You Back?
Many times we hold ourselves back after
coming to our senses because we let
pride interfere and it keeps us from
returning to our Father. Do you realize
that pride is a quiet, yet dangerous
spirit and it causes us to stay in
positions and situations that are
harmful, destructive, smelly, and it
even prevents us from confessing our
sins to God?
The father of the prodigal son forgot
all about the fact that his son took his
hard earned money and squandered it. He
was more excited about his son having
the sense to come back to the better way
of life then dwelling on the loss. We
will all, at some point or another in
our lives, stray off the path of right
living and venture into the pleasures of
the world; you know that wide gate that
Jesus talks about, that many will travel
on and leads to destruction. But we are
to forgive and celebrate when our loved
ones, friends and even we ourselves come
to our senses. There should be ‘hold up
wait a minute parties’ going on around
the clock because somebody is
surrendering their old way of life for a
new and better one, and exchanging their
old filthy garments for new ones.
Take a minute to examine your life –
where you are right now -- are you in
the pig pen ready and waiting to be
transformed? Are you at the point of
surrendering the old lifestyle and old
way of thinking that is keeping you in
the pig slop? Are you ready and willing
to abolish pride and kill stubbornness
so you can move out of that position of
being stuck in the mud?
If you have answered yes to any of these
questions, you have placed yourself in a
position for transformation to take
place; positioned to begin a wonderful
new journey with the Lord. If all of
this is new to you, your journey begins
upon accepting Jesus as your Savior and
Lord and receiving the free gift of His
Holy Spirit who is given to you as a
Helper. We cannot change ourselves – hey
who does that willingly anyway? If left
up to us, we would stay in a whole lot
of stuff that is ungodly, but thanks be
to God who gives to us freely His great
gifts.
I developed a wonderful relationship
with the Holy Spirit whom I call on all
the time to help me. At first I did not
think I could survive without sex, but
after He lifted that lust demon and
stuck a pin in my tail, I did just fine
and I have been fleeing fornication ever
since. I was no longer looked at with
those
‘you have any fries to go with that
shake’
comments from men when I walked down the
street. Now don’t get me wrong, there
have been several bouts with my flesh
since the seven year mark, but I call on
the Lord for help to get and keep my
flesh under subjection.
Celebrate
When the father saw his son returning
home in the distance he began rejoicing
and assembled his servants to prepare
for the biggest celebration ever. God
did the same thing for me – there was a
party in heaven that went on for hours.
I tell people my angels partied until
they passed out
- they were so excited for me coming to
my senses that God had to wake them up
in the morning by saying, ‘uh,
don’t y’all have something to do?”
It was at that moment that my
transformation began to take effect,
that the Lord responded and sent me help
to begin the process and begin the
journey on the path of righteousness. I
thank God for His Holy Spirit who helped
me turn my life around, and ‘No More
Sheets’ for allowing me the opportunity
to scrub all those men off!
Do not despise your brother or sister’s
hold up wait a minute moment. Just as
the father of the prodigal son assured
his other son (when he became angry
about the celebration)
“we had to celebrate and be glad,
because this brother of yours was dead
and is alive again, he was lost and is
found,”
(Luke 15:32 NIV). We have to do the
same, if it is that important to God, it
has to be important to us as well. The
pig slop is not a place that anyone has
to stay in, nor a place to get
comfortable in – we have a choice to
leave and when that choice is made --
celebrate.
So when we see people praising the Lord
with all their might, giving God a
radical, crazy praise, we don’t know the
cost of their praise, their cause for
celebration – just celebrate with them,
rejoice and give thanks that they even
came to their senses, encourage them
with songs and hymns. It is then that we
can then sing with sincere appreciation
and truth
‘I gave Him my old filthy garments, He
gave me a robe of pure white, now I’m
feasting on manna from heaven, that is
why I’m happy tonight!’
Gail Davis is a native of Brooklyn, New
York. A servant of God and born again
Christian, who surrendered her life back
to God eight years ago after many years
of living life in a backslidden state.
She is founder and owner of The Winning
Image, a graphic design and marketing
company whose mission is “to make you
look good on paper.” Services range from
logo designs, creation of marketing and
advertising materials, brochures,
banners, flyers, invitations, souvenir
journals – anything printable. Contact
Gail at
Winimge@aol.com
Print story
|