We were standing in the hallway wrapping up a conversation when a friend hit me with it.
First came the tears.
Then the sobbing.
We had to move from standing in the hallway to sitting in a chair in a room nearby.
Her heart was breaking.
Her daughter was asking some hard questions about Jesus, Her Savior, God the Father and the state of today’s climate. She was asking the good, bad and ugly questions about all the above. She was having a full-on faith crisis.
She was questioning all that she had known about her faith. Is God real? Why do bad things happen to good people?
She was being curious about why her parents believe what they did and does stand in the same place with them.
Have you done this? Have you experienced this? So many of us hesitate to say yes as though someone is going to judge you.
We grew up not questioning what was told. We were not encouraged to dive deeper into the bible to gain a better understanding of why we believe and what we believe. So, when these questions come at us, we are shocked, and paralysis takes over. We don’t know what to do or how to answer. Do we lecture, schedule a counseling appointment, do we freeze or ignore it and hopes it goes away?
The last thing I want is someone to go down a faith crisis and turn away from God. To walk away from Him for forever.
My friend shared with me that as this was happening, she began to insert herself into this. She found out that she was making it about her. She was asking herself did she not teach her daughter the right way, or did she love her too much or not enough, did she not discipline her enough or was she too legalistic with doctrine. She went round and round on all the things. This seems natural. We cannot blame ourselves. We have to spend the energy praying and listening to what God wants us to do in the situation.
There is a big word out there right now that scares the pants off of many people.
DECONSTRUCTION (in regards to own faith) On the podcast today, Debbie, Amy and myself talk about this really big word.
One author writes that it is a critical dismantling of a person’s understanding of what it means to be an evangelical Christian, and in some cases a refusal to recognize as authorities those perceived as occupying privileged evangelical institutional positions who “supposedly speak for God.”
This is a big word! I hear it and I have to catch myself in a juxtaposition. I think good for you for going deeper into your faith and then at the same time don't let Satan and the world twist God's truth or not tell the whole story and take you down a path that you walk away.
There is some interesting data recently that made me wonder about more kids deconstructing their faith. Let me add, we don’t know a percentage of the kids who do this and walk away or that stay. It is just a stat.
The Gospel Coalition printed an article in the 2022 State of the Bible survey where they noticed an unprecedented drop in the percentage of “Bible Users,” that is, Americans who use the Bible at least 3–4 times each year on their own, outside of a church setting. That means nearly 26 million Americans reduced or stopped their interaction with Scripture in the past year.
This is a shocking stat as well as one that saddens me.
Where have we gone wrong?
Are we not reminding believers that the Bible is God’s word? We hear from Him, we learn of His nature and His character in it. If we emphasize it more and put more importance on it would less turn away from Him?
I quickly realized I need to shut up and just join her army and be a prayer warrior to walk with her in this journey. I learned that I need to be an encouraging listener not a talking ear.
The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.
Isaiah 50:4