The story of the prodigal son Luke 15 is the story of a young man looking for greener grass. It is obvious that he has had it with his life because he demands something unheard of, culturally speaking for that age, by demanding his inheritance before his father is even dead. As soon as he can after he's gotten the money, he goes on a journey and "squanders his property in reckless living." He has a good time. He lives it up. He takes the trip that so many of us have either taken or dream of taking: the trip in search of greener grass.
This urge within us to find something better than we have is at its root a problem. If we think the grass is greener somewhere else, than we are simply discontented with where we are. While I don't know that gazing at green grass is always bad, I feel certain that it is rarely good. Contentment is a very Godly place, because it is necessarily a place of peace. It is also a place of faith, because in order to be content you must also recognize that God has you taken care of where you are. If this is the case, discontentment is a place of doubt and unrest, not a place the Lord has for us.
This is a thing that is next to impossible for us to come to terms with, that we should be content wherever we are. And it comes back to the fact that our circumstances do not determine our peace, or our joy, or our success. Peace and joy are a product of the Spirit; we find them in full when we walk in the fullness of the Spirit. Success is obedience to God, and so we can find success anywhere. But to say all of this is not to say that we are always where the Lord wants us to be. However, I suspect we are rarely discontented because we are not where the Lord wants us to be; we are usually discontented because we are not where we would like to be.
The prodigal son is discontented because he wants to live recklessly. So his father, who is a good father, let's him give reckless living a shot. Did you ever consider in this story that the father may have had some idea what was in his son's heart? How could he not? I imagine that the son had grumbled or moped in the past, or mentioned how he would like to travel away to some other greener place. The father give his son the opportunity to decide for himself what he would do, and at great expense to the father, not only monetarily (the inheritance) but also emotionally, personally. Spiritually. It is no doubt painful for the father to watch his son walking over the hill. The father sees how green the grass is near at hand, and how withered it is outside the fence. There is wisdom in giving heed to what is near at hand.
We have a good Father, one who is willing to give us everything knowing that we will squander it. And if you are anything like me, you have squandered a good deal of what you've been given and still find yourself gazing at faraway green fields. And if that's the case, I encourage you (and I encourage myself) to look nearer at hand, closer to home. The grass can be green on both sides of the fence; yes! Did you know that? And did you know that God is on both sides, too? Just look for peace where you are, and when you get somewhere else later on, look for peace there, too.
