Me: Howdy, Prodigal! Where you at?
Prodigal: Outside of this government property. I am not allowed to go in though.
Me: No, but instead of going in there. Lets chat. I just read in the book Beyond Opinion Living the Faith We Defend by Ravi Zacharias. I thought it was a good point and wanted to discuss with you.
Prodigal: Lets hear!
All ideals–divine, transcendent, human, or invented–are capable of being abused. That’s just the way human nature is. And that happens to religion, as well. Belief in God can be abused, and we need to be very clear, in the first place, that this abuse happens, and in the second, that we need to confront and oppose this. But abuse of an ideal does not negate its validity.
Some of you have been hurt by the church. This does not mean that God hurt you. It does not mean that you should never attend church or join a church again. If that were the case. You would shut yourself off from every government function that exits. You would never have any type of job with a supervisor. You would never have any friends. Also forget getting close to a family. All these systems have also had abuse in them.
We learn though how to be wise in these systems. We don’t cut them out of our life. We learn to not always trust everything a politicians says and vote for who we feel can do the job. We have supervisors who abuse their power and we find another job or take the steps needed to make sure they are not allowed to abuse that power. We have friends who take advantage but we don’t stop trying to reach out to connect with others. We may have had family that did not protect us the way they should have or even loved us the way we needed love. We don’t give up on family then. So then don’t give up on the church either.
What do we do now? We start by seeking God in these imperfect systems and ask His help in guiding us thru all of this.
Philippians 2:14-16
Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
