Parting of the way

 

You know what it's like. You're a Christian. And at some stage in your life you became a Christian. Either you were brought up a Christian by your parents, or you became a Christian later on in life.

You brought up your children to follow your beliefs. And all through life you and your family, extended family even, have walked the same path following Jesus.

Then at some point, someone decided to take a different path. Your spouse maybe, offspring, parent or other relative. They have decided no longer to follow Jesus and His teachings. Slowly but gradually they have ceased to believe. 

What do you do?

Arguments, debates, discussions and persuasions have not helped. If anything, people have become more entrenched in their way of thinking. It's probably got to the stage that families have broken up over this. People no longer talk to each other or see each other. Grand-parents have probably been denied access to grand-children. No contacts whatsoever between the generations or those we once loved so dearly and still do.

And the devil laughs.

Let's face facts. You cannot live someone else's life. It is difficult enough these days to live your own life without having to influence someone else to live their lives according to your morals and standards.

Look at the life of Saint Augustine, for instance. In spite of the good warnings of his mother, as a youth Augustine lived a hedonistic lifestyle associating with young men who boasted of their sexual exploits. His very nature, he says, was flawed. 'It was foul, and I loved it. I loved my own error—not that for which I erred, but the error itself.' Note also his famously insincere prayer, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."

 

However, it is said that his mother prayed all her life for God to help him and eventually Augustine turned to God and became a leading figure in the Church.

 

Perhaps that's what we should do when our loved ones walk away from God and there is the parting of the way. Pray, pray and pray some more.

 

God allowed the situation to happen. He did not cause it; just allowed it to happen. Had He in any way tried to stop your loved one from choosing a different path, then He would have interfered with that person's free will to choose. God let them go; but continued to love them.

 

In John Chapter 6 we read that Jesus said He is "the Bread of life" and later He says that unless people eat His flesh or drink His blood they will not have life.

As you can imagine, this was very confusing to His listeners; even His followers and disciples.

"What is He on about?" they asked. "How can we eat His flesh and drink His blood? This is cannibalism surely. This is too much for us. We don't want to follow this guy any longer!" Or words to that effect.

So what did Jesus do?

He didn't say, "Hey ... wait a minute. You didn't understand what I meant. This is what I really meant to say ... let me explain!"

No ... Jesus let them go. He didn't try to justify Himself or what He had just said. It was as if He dissolved the unspoken contract between them. They could not accept a certain clause so He let them go; and continued to love them.

And that's what we should do also. Let them go, but continue to love them and pray for them. And to be a good example by the way we behave.