Seeds in the Soil of the Soul

I have thought about why it is that people say they have stopped being Christians. I've seen lots of people come and go from the faith. I have had varying reactions to the news that someone has "left the faith", which depends I guess on what I may have discerned about them. Sometimes I am not at all surprised that they bail out on Jesus.

I worked with a man for three years who claimed to be a Christian. I would see him blow hot and cold. I bided my time over many conversations with him, and his main reason for his spiritual apathy was that no one in his family shared his interest in Jesus, or in going to church. This was as if to say, "If my family doesn't come on board, Jesus isn't worth the trouble. He eventually pried the "ichthus" emblem off of his pickup truck, saying that it shouldn't be on something he owned because he no longer believed it.

I chatted with him about that a bit. One day I asked him what was stopping him from being right with the Lord. When he realized he had no good reason not to be, he asked me to pray with him. We knelt there in the shop, and I let him do the talking. Me praying something for him to repeat seems silly.

(What I mean by that is, say a husband cheats on his wife. He wants to repent of his sin and get her forgiveness. Am I going to go to his front door with him and stand there and tell him what to say in front of her? No. Just seems silly to me. I know that there are circumstances where it may be necessary, but on the whole, I believe it is best sharing to do all of the guiding with Scripture and allow the words to come from the heart of the one who is repenting.)

Anyway.... my co-worker did most of the praying, and by the time he was done asking the Lord to take him back, he was in tears. Some months went by, and he gradually cooled off again. He began complaining of pain in his abdomen which grew more and more acute. After about a week, his appendix burst, but fortunately all of the toxin was contained within the outer membrane. He was told he was lucky to be alive.

He was hospitalized and was very worried about his situation. He was quite afraid before he went in for emergency surgery. He turned his heart to God and basically told Him that if the Lord would bring him through his surgery, he would serve Him whole-heartedly.

He was in the hospital for a month. I went there and read Scriptures to him. He seemed to be sincere. When he came back to work, things seemed to have cooled again. He was listening to a secular song on his radio. It was not a good song. It was fairly salacious. When I asked him why he would listen to something like that, he said that it didn't matter.

I reminded him that he had made a promise to God. What he told me in return is that when the rest of one's family could care less about God, it was pretty hard to stay in the race. Same tune, different time. I asked him why he would drop the ball like that when it was up to him to be the spiritual leader in his household, whether his family respected his beliefs or not. He said it was just too hard. Before he left the business, he had some more ups and downs. I see him from time to time, but I really don't know where he is at spiritually these days.

The parable of the sower in Matthew 13 is one of the first passages of Scripture my mind always drifts to when I contemplate what happens to such folks. The significant thing about the parable in my thinking is that it puts most of the emphasis on the "soil" to which the seeds of the kingdom were cast. There is no shortage of entertainers who say they "tried" Christianity, only to say that it just wasn't "for them". Some even sound like they managed to avoid something terrible. These are some of the most fragile people around though. They often end very badly. Overdoses, multiple marriages and even sometimes involvement in heinous crimes are not a shocker. The Lord did not expect us to take Him lightly. He made it plain enough in His word that being His disciple was a serious business.

"And He said to all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me." Luke 9:23

27 "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, he cannot be My disciple.28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he may have enough to finish it; 29 lest perhaps, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all those seeing begin to mock him, 30 saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. Luke 14:27-30

In this country, and in these times, being a believer pretty much costs you zippo. You practically have to take out a "want ad" to get persecuted. Oh, you may lose a few friends, but big deal. What is that compared to knowing Jesus? Nothing. But there is a possible ditch to walk into because of that. When no one is getting after you, it is easy to take being a Christian for granted. It is fun to be a member of a church where everyone shares interests and people are nice to you. It is a safe place to have your kids on a Sunday morning, or a Wednesday night. Nice, but these are the wrong reasons to be there. People often come to profess a belief in God when they really don't have one.

It never hurts a bit to take stock of our walk, check what we are doing, and pray that God will use us in the way most glorifies Him. We should be looking at what we are doing for His kingdom. The biggest hypocrite in the world can say that he has been saved by grace through faith, but it is a sure bet that they will almost never be caught being deeply involved in service to God in a way that truly glorifies His name. One telling thing is whether or not that person has a desire for other people to be saved in Jesus Christ. If somebody doesn't care about that, they are probably not a Christian, and it won't be long before they burn out and fall like a star from the sky.