Unka Glen

Anonymous asked: One of my closest friends broke up with her boyfriend, after they dated for a year and eight months. Her boyfriend is a Christian, and when they started dating, she started going to church and got into God and everything. But now that they’ve broken up, she’s so far from God and she’s drinking and cussing and calling herself a Christian and it just bothers me and I don’t know what to do.

Unka Glen answered: I’m really sorry to hear about your friend, and I know it must be a real strain on your friendship right now, which sucks for you too. I also sense a moderate-level freakout, which is understandable, but let’s see if that freakout fits with the larger realities going on.

The big theme here is: how do we react when someone stumbles or a backslides? Well, let’s zero-in on this phrase “she’s so far from God”. Hmm. She may be far from a Godly lifestyle, but does that mean that God is far away? 

Psalm 139 says “How can I get away from your Spirit? Where can I go to escape from you? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I lie down in the deepest parts of the earth, you are also there.” …And believe me, that was written by a man who did some sinnin’. We say someone is far from God, but every time I found myself backslid (and this is an area I’ve researched extensively), I prayed my prayer of confession and found God to be as close as my own heartbeat all along.

I liked the Idea of God being far away, it made it a whole lot easier to sin and feel like I was getting away with something, like I was sneaking off and enjoying myself, but the truth is: God is everywhere, and He sees everything. 

Then there’s the phrase, “she’s drinking and cussing and calling herself a Christian”. When someone backslides or stumbles we tend to think that this person is in another category. But they aren’t. If your friend gave her life to Christ, she has been adopted into God’s family, and here is the truest thing I know: God NEVER gives up on His kids. NEVER.

Speaking, again, as a chronic backslider, God always put signposts in my way. He kept bugging me. He kept reminding me. He never gave up on me. God’s work in my life is never over, period. Philippians 1:6 says, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” 

So what should our attitude be? 1) We should have peace about the fact that God is near, and that we cannot sever a bond that was made by God. 2) We should have hope because God can handle His business, and He is currently handling it. 3) We should seek patience and a little comfort for a crazy heartbreaking situation that really sucks.