People walk away, don’t they?
Some walk away from their hometown.
Others walk away from their marriages.
Still others walk away from church.
And others walk away from ministry.
And more than a few walk away from the faith itself.
I recall a conversation with a man who told me — with great resolve in his voice and determination on his face — that he was choosing a life of apathy and drugs over one of involvement and Christ.
You may have been in a place where you wanted to walk away. I know I have — from ministry, church, from Jesus.
And then this week I think I finally understood why. Why is it that people turn their back on what is enduring and what is eternal? Why do they choose a dying relationship with themselves over a living relationship with Jesus Christ?
Because it’s easier to walk away from God than to risk being disappointed by God.
Read that again.
And say it out loud: It’s easier to walk away from God than to risk being disappointed by God.
Think about it. A life of faith involves prayers that go unanswered, revivals that go unsent, churches that go ungrown, intimacy that goes unfelt. All summarized by the phrase disappointed by God. Scripture is full of people who gave full voice to their own disappointment with their maker — Job, Paul, Jonah, Solomon, the writers of Psalm 13, 44, and 88.
All this is why Philip Yancey’s Disappointment With God is a virtual must-read in the life of any long-time Christian.
Because at the end of the day, I think God prefers our anger to our absence.
If you’ve walked away, perhaps it’s time to walk back.