Go On Anyway
Good Morning,
When someone close to us falls, there is a certain grief that hits us. If it be a child, a spouse, or someone who works for us, it is a heavy weight to bear when those near us make a mess of their lives.
I know people who have quit going to church when their marriage failed (often simply out of shame and partly wishing not to be reminded by the questions folks innocently ask). The same is true if a business fails, if a child gets into great trouble, or any number of personal sins. Some people also feel personal responsibility that they failed as a spouse, parent, or boss; they blame themselves and withdraw from life in guilt or self-abasement.
Allow me to mention a few Bible truths and some thoughts to ponder when those near to you fail.
Our knowledge of history begins long before Genesis one; we find the earliest historical events in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 when Satan was cast out of Heaven. I am so thankful that God did not quit when one of His created servants rebelled and took a major part of the heavenly creatures with him to their ultimate destruction. God is perfect, yet one of the beings He created used his free will to seek the highest position in Heaven. God went on being God.
Sometime later, God made man, and you know how that went. One child was fooled by Satan, and the other chose willfully to disobey the simple commandment not to eat from that tree. Skipping ahead to the New Testament, we see how our Lord personally picked his followers, and one of the twelve was filled with Satan and sold out the Master. That choice to pick Judas was not a BAD decision; it was perfect like everything our Lord did. I am glad Jesus stayed on track doing the will of God. When a follower does wrong, it has nothing to do with the leader, much like Satan's decision to rebel against God had nothing to do with God.
We can look at stories of earthly leaders and see one of the Apostles’ key couples lie to the Lord. God had to kill them (Acts 5). When your child or spouse chooses wrong, you are not to blame; it was their choice, not yours.
2 Timothy 4:10 tells of three of Paul’s hand-picked workers who went back to the world:
"For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia."
While I'm sure Paul missed them and was grieved over their bad decisions, Paul kept going on for God.
Parents, when your child fails, you still have a life to live for God. No, you were not perfect, and neither were any other people. When a traitor walks away from his post to join the Taliban, the fault does not lie with the commanding officer. When your spouse walks away from their marriage vows, it is not your fault any more than it was the fault of Hosea that his wife went into prostitution. No, you were not a perfect spouse, but neither is anyone else.
Satan is the accuser of the brethren. Do not join the wicked one in trying to discourage good people from doing their duties in life. We live in a broken world, and will feel some hurt when a child or someone near you goes astray. Once you have hurt and grieved, get up and get going to make up for the work that was left undone by the one who walked into the world. Ask the manager at any major store if he ever had employees break company policy, steal, or defraud the store. Then ask if the boss took the blame. If you are the one who messed up things and you failed, read about Edison who found a thousand ways NOT to make a lightbulb. If leaders around you make a mess of things, remember our founding fathers who had to walk away from England – they built the greatest nation on earth.
If it was your decision to go astray, remember the cross, and that forgiveness is available (1 John 1:9), because "God so loved the world."
Some of the finest pastors and church members I know lost a child, a spouse, a business, and they went on with a broken heart to do countless wonderful things. (Yes, even while being criticized.) Keep on!
Pastor