It is tough when you are a child and your friends move away, or if you move away from your friends. It's hard as an adult, especially if you aren't moving but are leaving the place your friends are. This idea of community in Christianity and homeschooling has become such a high priority, I see people compromise on Truth in order to have it. I see people make educational decisions because of the almighty community and stay in churches with major problems because of the community they are in and love (and have been in forever...). What I don't hear is people preparing their children or themselves to walk through the narrow gate...the gate that is single file, which at some point as we come near to God, is required. We must enter through the narrow gate...
I know we aren't supposed to live in isolation, on the contrary we are told not to forsake assembling together with other believers. We need fellowship. But are fellowship and today's definition of 'community' the same thing? Can we have proper community with people who are seriously off-base with their theology, or what about if we never bother to find out about the people in our 'community' and their theology? I'll tell you, I love to think on this stuff and my mind has been snapped to attention with what I have learned through the years about what other seemingly like-minded people actually believe about various aspects of the Christian life.
When I think of how many of the churches selling Christianity are focused on numbers, and then see mom's working hard to make sure their children feel a connection to the people in the church because deep down they think it's that which will keep them in the faith, it makes me worry. This idea of making the connection to Christ out of people-thread follows the prevailing thought of the SBC these days that the mere message of the Gospel isn't enough...which follows much of the idea behind the contemporary Christian music movement...we have to sound like the world to be relevant, we have to look like the world to be relevant...they won't come if we are too Christian seeming and looking, so rock some flip-flops, jeans, guitars and messy hair and head to church to sway and play music that is "Christian" because of the words (because in today's world, musical appropriateness for worship is all about us expressing ourselves in a way that we like and feel is fun/exciting/comfortable and the musical notes and how they are arranged is highly subjective).
For the record, no one will ever convince me that contemporary Christian music is as holy and worshipful as a hymn. The words of a hymn could lead a person to a saving faith in Christ, and I have yet to hear a CCM song that will do it. Just my .02, but I don't buy in to the 'each generation has its own sound' stuff. I think we've gone so far from holy, worship as it used to be because as the church, we've just moved our measuring stick along with the world. The world has gotten 10 feet more evil, and well, we're not anywhere close to them, so we're OK, yet we've moved our stick right along with them, we're just keeping it back 10 paces. Corporate worship carries a responsibility with it and shallow songs aren't going to grow mature believers. Private worship may be enhanced with the lighter flavor of modern Christian tones...but carefully selected and not as the steady protein of the diet (again, my .02).
As an aside to my aside....
Why should young people, who are not fully grounded in profound spiritual truths, select the music for worship for themselves or others in a corporate setting? Music is powerful and let's not forget, Lucifer had a mighty hand in it. Is it possible Satan uses music as a tool today?
So anyway, you leave your church, you leave your home school group, you become part of minority in this culture who doesn't want to rock out in church with emotional, worldly sounding music, you start wearing dresses only or you get shunned for being convicted to wear a head covering...or your friends move away or you have left where all your friends are....what is to be? Who will love you or like you??
God will provide.
And it's true, if we trust Him to be conforming us more and more to the image of His son, which may or may not require friends...He will provide what we need.
So I told my daughter tonight, simply and succinctly, because news your best friend is finally moving is hard for a 9-year-old, even if you have anticipated it for 2 years, that
"God will provide."
And I know He will. If He wants us to have friends, we will have them. But it is better to be lonely and alone than in ungodly company.
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