When the Church Lets You Down, Remember Everything is Not Terrible
This is part 8 of our series, What to Do When the Church Lets You Down. You can see all the posts here.
When the church lets you down, your life is rocked in a tremendous way. During a low point in our struggles with church, I wrote in my journal:
Everything that remotely resembled community was stripped away – taken in a blink of an eye. “They” get “the church,” and we’re left stunned and alone. The church goes on – all smiles and conversation – while we sit home another Sunday wondering what on earth do we do?
When the church lets you down, it’s easy to feel as though everything in your life has gone bad. In a lot of ways, you’ll find out what your faith is made of and where your heart’s worship truly lies. You’ll likely feel a little lost and vulnerable like I did, and you’ll definitely feel the need to question everything else in your life. But it’s important to remember that everything is not terrible. This is just one season of your journey with Christ and just one part of your life.
Just because the church let me down didn’t mean my marriage instantly went south, or my parenting abilities soured, or my ministry here online fell apart. Of course all of these areas were affected, but they didn’t instantly become terrible too just because I had a bad experience with our church. But boy did Satan try to convince me everything was terrible!
My point is that if the church lets you down, it’s important to guard against the temptation to wallow in self pity and think everything is just terrible. It’s not. Instead it’s a time to fight for joy in the Lord, put on the breast plate of faith in your Savior, exercise patience in your suffering, and pour out your heart in prayer to our Father who cares.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. ~Hebrews 12:12-13
So when the church lets you down, remember everything is not terrible. Your entire life is not falling apart. You will be okay.
great post leigh ann! i’ve been there on a few occasions! seems to deepen the marriage, improve appreciation for the family and move us closer in relationship to Christ. then we learn to live in relationship with the people in the church/ decide if we are to leave if that is a choice.
then we have to NOT talk to outside people! ugh! i hate that part. but it serves no good for us to tell everyone our opinion. we’re too emotional. 6 months down the road, we’ll be so glad we didn’t talk!