Where Do Lost Christians Go?

Have you ever had a dream and wondered what it meant? I recall a strange dream I had once. I can't remember everything, but I seem to remember I was in a house sleeping with my family and everything was locked up and felt safe, and then I woke up and left that safe place. A distant family member showed me a way out from there down the passage, and when I wandered down, I noticed an old, rickety, white metal security door that was ajar, and there were dogs or wolves coming in and out of the door. I then closed the door, which took a bit of effort, and saw it could not be locked, and I realised that the last part of the house was open and ended without walls. I had thought I was safe in there, but realised I hadn't been all along. I then wondered if this could be an analogy for when I stopped attending a particular church, where I initially thought I was safe and which I considered to by my home church, only to find that undercurrents of unethical politics were rampant, like ravening wolves on the rampage.

After that experience I wandered in the wilderness for a while, meaning I was searching for another church to call home, but not wanting to really commit; after all, as the Bible says, Satan masquerades as an angel of light, and I was worried about being drawn to attend another church and then finding out wolves were dogging the fringes. In my case, I am fortunate to have strong faith, and I know that what I was experiencing was either a test from God to make me stronger and to learn my lessons, or mayhap I had misunderstood the circumstances, or else I had thankfully escaped from a church that was not meant for me.

I wonder, how many of the lost something like this happened to? You go to church expecting to find caring people, and instead find the same politics you will find in the world? Yet I do realise an impression like this may be based on an incidental event that may not be the norm for the organisation concerned and many other churchgoers may continue to have a wonderful experience at the same church, it depends on complex individual circumstance. Any of the individuals who attend church may have complex struggles each is dealing with and God may be working in each life. God accepts each person with faults and struggles and failings, though He does expect people to follow the narrow path of righteousness. Only God knows the motive behind incidents that happen where someone feels the need to walk away due to being hurt. I muse now that perhaps I was not thoroughly grounded in the church community at the time and perhaps I might have stuck it out and seen things through if I had been. Sometimes a lesson is learnt where at the same time it may also really hurt.

I am concerned about individuals who fall outside the mainstream and who may struggle to fit into an already well defined group structure and specific cultural norms. This concept is very similar to my blog post about people who may not easily fit into the everyday work environment, and a challenge is how to ensure they will be able to make a living and be part of society (Poverty and the Job Hiring Process).

Where do such lost Christians go? They search for God, and may desperately want to follow a righteous path and walk closely with God, but they might not know all the rules of a church organisation when they first come in. And when they go from a church, many without a murmur, they might be out of sight, but they struggle on somewhere else and some may turn away from God and stop believing. Yet people may have inadvertently turned them away or hurt them, not God. God is still there for them and cares deeply about His children, His lost sheep. We have only to think of humanitarians like Mother Teresa to see God's real hands and feet in action.

I ask you to pray earnestly if you feel you have been hurt by people and to decide to forgive to set yourself free and to walk on and allow God to deal with them. Maybe you will walk into a better place? Jesus rejoices when people find Him, the true way to the Father, and He also makes sure He looks for His lost sheep, who hear his voice.

"Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him. The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them." He told them this parable. "Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn't leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance." (Luke 15:1-7 WEB)