One of the main reasons that people are running away from your church is because you are saying things like this:
“If you are lucky enough to raise a teenager that never drank or smoked or got arrested or snuck out or cheated on a test; if you were lucky enough to never feel like you were just a complete and utter failure as a parent because of the behavior of your kid, consider it just that: lucky.”
Yikes.
What I am about to say will be painful. I predict that you’ll run away from it after hurling angry words at me. As you fume about my ‘unloving’ or ‘arrogant’ tone, remember that I predicted your response. I’m not making a ‘lucky’ guess.
The Bible teaches that human beings are wicked creatures who spend all our time thinking about doing evil. ALL PEOPLE are bent toward sin. There is a zero percent (0%) chance that you are a ‘good’ person which means there is no chance (0%) that you were a good parent.
The Bible teaches that despite your relentless wickedness, God loves you. It is not His will for you to die in your sins. Jesus came down to Earth and lived a perfect human life but God allowed Him to take the blame for YOUR sins. When you surrender your life to Christ, the Bible says that you become a new creation. The old, sinful person dies and a new person takes her place. That’s not ‘luck’ — that’s God’s promise.
Christians don’t worship the god of ‘good fortune.’ Christians are not subject to ‘Karma.’ The indwelling of the Holy Spirit doesn’t improve your odds of making ‘good decisions.’ The Holy Spirit makes you DEAD TO SIN. It is not possible for ‘luck’ to snatch your children away from the truth. If your children aren’t following your religion, then your religion isn’t the truth.
Christians are never ‘lucky.’ Christians are assured that everything works together for our good. God orders our steps and He doesn’t do that by flipping a coin. Jesus is the vine and His disciples are branches. When parents attach their children to the vine, the children bear fruit. Children that don’t bear fruit, are not connected to the vine. It’s as (horrifyingly) simple as that.
Of course, it’s possible for children to go astray despite being raised to know the truth. When that happens, Christian parents use words like ‘rebelliousness’ and ‘sinfulness’ and ‘pride.’ They don’t wring their hands, shrug their shoulders and say, “We’re just unlucky I guess.”
(Luke 6:43) “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”
One Response
Hi John,
I agree with what you said about “luck”; what you said about our sinfulness; and about God’s providence. Absolutely .
But, just to clarify…. WE, as parents, don’t attach our children to the vine. That is God’s domain. We teach them, we train them up, etc. If our children aren’t following our religion, then it’s not THEIR religion. Are they chosen by God? The Potter chooses, yes? The hard truth for us parents is, that we can’t save our children. That is all God. And so, we pray. I rest in God’s sovereignty.