"Letting Go of God"
Great topic for discussion, folks. In my experience, doubting one's faith--indeed, even losing it--is a normal part of maturing and growing up; it is also a common reaction to a tragedy in one's life. I grew up in a devout home, attending church with my family every week. But when I graduated from high school and went off to the Marine Corps (1966-72) my faith was shaken and I developed great doubts about God: does he exist? and if so, how can he allow terrible things to happen to good people. I also began reading others who struggled with such doubts, in particular Bertrand Russell, the mathematician, philosopher and atheist, who wrote "Why I Am Not a Christian, and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects." It was a long journey for me down a rather dark path that lasted a decade.
But ultimately it moved me full circle, this time with a much deeper and more mature understanding of God.
My father followed a similar path in reaction to my mother's death when she was 47 years old. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church; she was a deacon. But after she died my father hated God for 20 years, because my mother had been taken from him after suffering with a particularly painful and debilitating form of cancer. In the end, though, he died in a profound state of grace, embracing--and embraced--by Christ.
I think many others have had similar experiences.
I suspect that if one has the same faith at 70 years old that one had at 5, he or she has never grown, never matured, never gotten out of the nursery, never eaten solid food, only milk and Pablum.
A relationship with God is like any other relationship: there are periods of intense love, intense pain and plenty of flat spaces in between. The love a couple has for each other on their honeymoon is wonderful, but the love they have for each other on their 50th wedding anniversary is far more profound. It has been tested. It has been tried. And it has prevailed. There may even have been periods of separation along the way.
The same is true of our relationship with God.
In Jude, verse 18 we're told that "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." And then Jude goes on in verses 20-23 to tell us seven specific things believers can do in "days of apostasy":
1) build yourselves up in your most holy faith
2) pray in the Holy Spirit
3) keep yourselves in God's love
4) wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life
5) be merciful to those who doubt
6) snatch others from the fire and save them
7) show mercy, mixed with fear--hating even the clothing stained by the flesh
When it comes to those who doubt or who have let go of God, remember #5.
The verse that I like to bring to mind in such a situation is Joshua 24:15, "But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."