Linda [1]was a new
believer. She was full of joy and
excitement about her new life in Christ.
She had become involved in our church and joined the small group Bible
study that I was leading. One Saturday
afternoon, Linda invited me to her home and we decided to take a walk to a
nearby park. On the way, she began
telling me about her life before she became a Christ follower. She had been addicted to various drugs and
had a promiscuous lifestyle. Her old way
of life had felt like a trap and she was glad Christ had set her free from
it. She was clean and sober now. Linda told me she wanted to do things God’s
way and she intended to wait until marriage to have sex again.
But her old life kept calling her back. As far as I know she did not turn to drugs
again but sexual temptation was a real struggle. She wanted to meet a man who would cherish
her but the guys she met did not have the same convictions she did about being
sexually pure. We had many long talks
where I tried to encourage her to keep walking with Jesus and to stick to the
commitment she had made to purity.
She began dating a
guy who was not following Christ and he began pressuring her to have sex with
him. Not long after they starting
dating, I got a call from Linda telling me she was moving in with this
guy. She was convinced that what she was
doing was okay because after all, “Oprah was a Christian and she lived with her
boyfriend.” Linda wanted me to tell her
I agreed with her decision. She wanted
me to tell her that God would be alright with it. I told her I loved her. I told her I would
still be her friend. I told her I hoped
she would keep coming to our group. But
I just could not tell her what she was doing was right. The Bible teaches, “Run from sexual sin! No
other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality
is a sin against your own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18, NLT) The sad thing is that Linda knew all too well
from personal experience the destructive effect sexual sin can have on your
soul.
Unfortunately, Linda
dropped out of our group and stopped attending church. Since she had moved in with her boyfriend, I
had no way of contacting her so we lost touch. (This was also in the days
before cell phones were ubiquitous).
Linda had become a wayward sheep.
The Scripture
says, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to
follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6, NLT) I think straying away happens both before we
join Jesus’ flock and afterward as well.
We often return to our old patterns of living when life becomes hard and
we lose sight of Jesus. In fact, right
before Jesus told Peter to, “feed my sheep.” Peter and a bunch of the
other disciples had gone fishing. He
returned to his old lifestyle, even though by this time he knew Jesus had risen
from the dead. (See John 20 & 21).
He went back to his old profession even though Jesus had told him, “From
now on you’ll be fishing for people!” (Luke 5:10, NLT)
When I say all of
us have wandered off from Jesus, I do not exclude myself. It’s just that my wanderings are less obvious,
sometimes even to myself. In his life-changing
book, The Prodigal God, Tim Keller says that in the parable known as the
Prodigal Son, there are really two lost sons.
One who left home and ruined his life in such a spectacular way and the
elder brother who stayed home and stewed in his self-righteous pride and
indignation. Keller contends that people
usually fall away from God like one or the other of these brothers, though
sometimes we can bounce from one sin pattern to another. I have always been the older brother type of
sinner.
There is a big difference between an elder
brother and a real, gospel-believing Christian.
But there are also many genuine Christians who are elder brotherish. If you came to Christ out of being a
younger brother, there is always the danger of partially relapsing into addictions
or other younger brother sins. But if
you become a Christian out of being an elder brother, you can even more easily
slide back into elder-brother attitudes and spiritual deadness. If you have not grasped the gospel fully and
deeply, you will return to being condescending, condemning, anxious, insecure,
joyless and angry all the time.[2]
Each of us goes astray in our own way. We turn back to our old ways of life hoping
that will lead to our fulfillment. Linda
went turned back to seeking a man who would secure her significance. I return to thinking I am better than other
people. I wrongly hope my “moral superiority” will prop up my insecure ego. Guess
what? Neither path brings the peace and
joy we experience when we trust in and follow Jesus.
But thank God we have a good shepherd, who
knows us and has laid down his life for us.
When we go astray, He does not say, “good riddance.” He comes after us to bring us back:
So Jesus told them this
story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he
do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search
for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will
joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together
his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my
lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner
who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous
and haven’t strayed away! (Luke 15:3-7, NLT)
Now for the rest of the
story about Linda. Jesus proved Himself
to be her good shepherd as He sought her out and brought her back to
Himself. A couple years after our final
conversation, I was on my way to help get ready for our church’s Easter
celebration. On the way, I ran out of
gas in my car. I walked about half a
mile and back to get gas and put it in my tank. After this delay, I knew I was too late for
the pre-service meetings, so I went directly to the gym where we were meeting
at the time to find a seat. Who was just
down the row from me—-Linda and a young man she introduced as her new
husband. This was not the guy she
had moved in with. Although she did not
go into all the details, she said she realized that moving in with that guy was
a mistake. However, Jesus had wooed her back to Himself. Afterward, she had met her husband who was a Christian
man. That Easter was the last time I saw
Linda. I believe she and her husband decided to attend the more traditional
church he had grown up in. But I think
it was no coincidence that I ran out of gas, making me arrive just in time to
sit near Linda. I believe God wanted me
to see that He takes care of His sheep.
He loved and cared for Linda much more than I did, or ever could.
This brings us full circle
back to lesson one. You can rely on God’s love.
When you reach out to help one of God’s sheep, remember He is ultimately
the one who cares and protects them:
My sheep listen to My voice;
I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never
perish. No one can snatch them away from Me, for my Father has given them to Me,
and He is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the
Father’s hand. The Father and I are one. (John 10:27-30, NLT)
Learning the Lesson:
Congratulations! You have made it through all 10 of the Life Lessons Worth Learning Over and Over
Again. Hopefully you have learned a thing
or two along the way. I pray that at
least one of these lessons will stick with you and come to mind when you are in
a difficult season.
For
me, whether or not anyone else reads the book, writing this has been a
wonderful experience. It has caused me
to look back over my life and see all the many ways God has been drawing me to
Himself over the years. I am so thankful
for all my experiences and the friends I have met along the way.
For
this last lesson I urge you to take the time to reflect back on your life,
however long or short it has been so far.
What would you say are your top 10 life lessons? Think about it and write them out below (Since this is the blog format why don't you share them in the comments for everyone to see):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
[1] Not her real name.
[2] Keller, T. (2008). The prodigal God: Recovering the heart of the Christian Faith. New York: Penguin Group, p. 70.
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