why

Never will I understand why a young person leaves the church. “Oh, of course not,” you say “because you’re a PK and nothing bad enough has ever happened to you. You just don’t understand how hard my life is.” Honey, you’re incorrect about my life being “easy.” And you’re also incorrect to assume that “having a hard life” can justify walking away from God. I can name many young people that have had horrendous childhoods, yet are still living for Him.

Now that we have that out of the way.

I absolutely cannot understand why.

They know the truth, yet they still choose to go. They know God is coming back whether they’re ready or not, yet they still choose to go. They know they’ll bear scars forever, yet they still choose to go.

It pains me to my core when I hear of yet another young person choosing to follow their own hearts instead of God’s. All because of what? a girlfriend or boyfriend? “no rules”? I don’t have to experience it to know that it’s not worth it.

I’m struggling to get what I’m feeling into words. I have an intense burden for the young people that are on the fence or already backslid. I can’t describe how much it hurts when I hear of a young person leaving the church. So much potential, all lost. Why do they think it’s worth it? Why does the world look good enough to them that they’d give their entire lives up? I definitely believe we need to be reaching the sinners on the streets, but what are we doing about the young people that are next to us on the pews? We spend so much energy getting new people that we ignore the hurting youth surrounding us. Yes, knock doors. But God is calling us to invest in each other. If we let good young people slip through our fingers, who are we to try to get a stranger to come to church? When we aren’t even taking care of the people we already have?

To you that share my burden, reach for them, invest in them, love them. No, you can’t stop them all––but you will absolutely impact lives if you let God lead you.

To you that are on the fence––get off. If you’re on the fence, you’re already halfway gone. Come back before it’s too late, before your life is in shambles beyond repair. The world is never worth it. Living for God is so simple compared to how your life will end up. If you believe in hell (because it absolutely is real), why would you ever walk away? Your future is out of your control; death doesn’t only come when you’re old, and the trumpet doesn’t wait to sound until you’ve come back to an altar. Give yourself away and fall in love with Him! His yolk is easy, His burden is light. There is nothing on earth worth losing your soul! A few moments, or even years, of pleasure are not worth an eternity of torture.

Why? Why do good young people let themselves get lukewarm? That’s where the danger lies. The danger is when people get comfortable in going through the motions, in what they already have in Him. If you aren’t moving forward in God, you are most definitely moving backwards––there’s no in between. Why can’t we push through our temporary discomforts and embarrassments and serve Him with everything we have? He should hold the #1 position in our lives, far above our dignity and comforts. If those are your idols, then you’re sure not going to enjoy hell very much.

During pre-service prayer, pray with everything in you. During song service, worship with everything in you. During the preaching, listen and absorb with everything in you. During altar call, seek Him with everything in you.

I’m not writing this because I myself have arrived; I’m writing this in a desperate attempt to put a fire in your soul. Let it burn deep in your gut until nothing else matters, until something inside you breaks, until everyone around you fades into a blur. You have nothing to lose by giving God control and everything to gain. Why hold back? What could possibly be worth holding onto yourself and your own will?

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