A new friend
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A new friendship
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Jay is a follower of Christ, but he would say that he's burned out on the Church. He's had some disappointments with church leaders, who when he needed them the most, they were not there for him.
I asked Jay, "If you had one question that you could ask God, what would it be?" He said, "I would ask him what could I have done differently so that my life would not have turned out the way it has." Jay has suffered a divorce and is experiencing ongoing conflict right now.
He talked a little bit about plans that God has for our lives as Christians. We explored some hard questions: Does God have a "Plan A" that he expects us to follow, and through poor choices on our part, we end up with "Plan B"? Or is God more concerned with being in relationship with us as his sons and daughters, growing in our love for him and dependence on Him, than he is about us figuring out a detailed plan? How would we know the details anyway? Does He want us to know him and his love for us and to share that with others, regardless of our circumstances, regardless of struggles we face, some that we may have brought on ourselves? Did any of the characters in the Bible follow a "Plan A"? Is it a worthwhile exercise to say, "if only...." and to dwell on our regrets?
Jay has a couple of favorite characters in the Bible. One is Job. We talked about Job's trials and his suffering and how none of his troubles were brought on by Job's poor choices. He didn't get to choose what his life would be like. One thing Job certainly learned through his suffering was that he did not have control of his own life. He still bore responsibility for how he would respond, and by God's grace, his response was to put his trust in Him in the midst of his pain: "though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him."
Another character that has inspired Jay is Jacob who wrestled with God until he blessed him. Jay said he was not going to give up on God's blessing in his life, even though he is dealing with a lot of difficulty with his family right now. Jay asked me to pray for him, and we agreed to get together again in a couple of weeks to continue our conversation. I'm praying he will feel led to join my men's discipleship group where he can get the ongoing support and encouragement he needs from some other men who are growing in our love for Christ.
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