WHEN A BELIEVER WALKS AWAY FROM GOD… (Part 1 - Being Honest About It)

One of the most treasured gifts I receive is when someone is openly candid with me.

I'm a pastor.  Quite often, people who don't really know me think they need to say things that will please my ordination certificate, or at least not offend it.  Many are reluctant to admit that they no longer "buy" what they see me (if you will) always selling.

Truth be told, most pastors would rather you lay aside the tap-dancing and speak what is really going on inside, whatever it is.

Truth be told, God would prefer it as well.  I can't recall any time in the life of Jesus when He asked anyone to be a pretender.  Can you?

I'VE BEEN STRUGGLING FOR A LONG TIME

Today, I received one such gift.  A young father I admire opened up after I asked, "OK…what's really going on with you?"

"Well, I grew up in the church.  Went Sunday morning, Sunday night, even Wednesday night.  I've been in the youth group.  Was in FCA while an athlete in college,  I've had  'a walk,' studied my bible, prayed a lot.  Today, well…I just don't know."

"OK…what's knocked you off the tracks?" I asked.

"A whole lot of things.  Newtown.  9-11.  When I read the Bible, and look at the life of Jesus, I think I'd conclude (like some did) that He was kinda crazy.  And all the fantastic, miracle stuff in the Bible.  It just doesn't seem to ring like it's true.  I've got a lot of questions, and I've been struggling for a long time."

Even a quick review of that grocery list reveals that his questions cover the waterfront with struggles we all have with God.  Where's a good God when senseless evil guns down children?  When extremists snuff out the lives of over 3,000 in one day in downtown New York? And…Jesus…really?  Walking on water?  Teaching me to "love Him" and "hate my mother and father"?   Seas parting?  Sun "standing still"?  A whale vomiting up a prophet in the Mediterranean Sea?

THINK WITH THEM…REFUSE TO JUDGE

In decades of pastoral ministry, one thing I've learned.  Tough questions need thoughtful, non-judgmental answerings.  God can handle prickly press conferences.  We should too.  From cover to cover in the good Book, people often dialogued with God about the difficult-to-swallow.

Honestly struggling people need you and I to struggle with them, and not merely to say, "Here's the answer…believe it."  Getting back on the rails requires discovering God to be God all over again rather than just being handed pat answers.  Jacob wrestled with God, and in the long night of leveraging one another, Jacob discovered in the end he did not want to let God go.  "I will not let you go until You bless me."  Doubt and fear had been replaced by a tenacious clinging.

MANY WAYS TO DRIFT AWAY

To be sure, not every "drift" from God is driven by new and honest questions.  People walk away from months, sometimes years, of walking with Christ for a wide variety of reasons

• obeying God loses to the desires of the flesh, and disobedience
• the fellowship of the Body loses to the easier, less rigorous fellowship of the world
• seduced by "doctrines of demons," false teaching which appears more attractive and profitable than the call of Christ and the directives of Scriptures
• simple neglect of springs of spiritual life and nurture

"In the later days," Paul reminded Timothy, "many will fall away from the faith."  Faith they had, faith they are forfeiting.  The writer to the Hebrew Christians begged them, "Don't throw away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward."  No doubt, even with the appeal, some threw it away.

We who continue to follow and grow in Christ mourn over those who drift away, who fall away, who throw away their confidence in the One who alone is worthy of it.  We wonder about "what happens to them" even as they've grown cold spiritually.  We feel powerless, often, to warm them up again.

Defection happens.

Part 2 will take up the question of status - are those who walk away still "saved"?  What does the Bible teach?