Sarah D. Shearer

Dear friends,

It may have been weeks or months or even years since we’ve spoken. Social media makes us feel as though we are “connected” but we all know the only true way to connect with someone is by sitting down face to face.

I’m writing to you because I think of you often. I grew up in the same church as many of you, went to the same camps, and attended some of the same schools or homeschool groups. We acted in the same Christmas plays and went to the same birthday parties. We memorized bible verses together, listened to our youth and children’s pastors, cried over 90’s worship music, and encountered God together. Many times over many years, we conversed and sought God together. We were excited to marry and have children and we prayed for our future spouses. We committed to purity, and we surrendered everything we could think of to God. We messed up on a lot of things, but I believe our hearts were truly in the right place.

Then, as we got older, funny things started to happen. Little compromises in attire, dating standards, even the language used in conversation, gave way to bigger topics such as how completely wrong our parents and spiritual leaders had to be in just about every way. Suddenly, it seemed as though our generation was more enlightened and everything that smelled of rules, standards or ethics was suddenly steeped in the “L word”: legalism.

Before I knew it, many of you had all but abandoned any semblance of your childhood faith, claiming you had found true enlightenment in your more accepting way of life. Freed from the bonds of religion, you could more readily embrace people and now, you even knew Jesus better.

I have long struggled to bridge this gap of knowing Jesus while departing from what he says.

I read the Bible, and then I talk with people who know the Bible quite well and have used it to fit their narrative, but something still doesn’t sit well with me because so much of what I see my old friends living in is clearly a pathway to destruction, and yet you are on your merry way there.

I am a woman who is still on her faith journey but I believe Jesus IS his word, and I would like to propose a few thoughts to you.

First, I’m wondering if you’ve met the true, authentic, beautiful Jesus of the Bible.

Because when you get to know the person of Jesus Christ, your whole life changes. He flips every paradigm you’ve ever held and he carefully and gently leads you as you study his word, which is HIM. if you believe any of the Bible you must believe all of it because the Word was in the beginning and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1).

He has eliminated the confusion so many people find themselves in by writing us a long letter outlining his pursuit of us and our response to his pursuit. When you encounter Jesus, you are never ever the same.

Second, I think back to my children’s church and youth in the charismatic church and I see so many leaders who were doing the best they could. They weren’t perfect but they loved Jesus and did their best to portray him well, only to see a vast majority of kids walk away.

I wonder if perhaps an accidental overemphasis on experience and a lack of focus on the Word caused some to think that Jesus was just a cool feeling you got at camp, rather than a real person who wanted to be part of every aspect of your life.

Third, I wonder if our parents, in all their infinite love for us, wanted us to avoid the mistakes they made so they tried to structure our lives in such a way that we couldn’t possibly screw up. This inevitably meant lots of rules. No dating, no bikinis, no “secular music” and so many other ways they tried earnestly to protect us. Perhaps it was extra- biblical at times, but I can see their hearts and if you are angry at them —even today, I encourage you to forgive them and try to see their hearts. They were doing what they thought was best.

At the core of so much disillusionment is what I believe to be largely misunderstanding. Our leaders were trying and they often failed. Our parents were trying and they often failed. But the one person who remains unchanging in the midst of an ever shifting sea of standards is Jesus himself.

I wonder if in all your years of church, if you ever discovered the Word, that is, Jesus

Christ. He is constant and unchanging and he is worthy of trust, for he will never fail us.

All churches and all denominations and all people will fail you. They are fallible. No doubt, a youth pastor or a parent has hurt you deeply at some point. But I beg of you, please try to separate messed up people from a holy and perfect God.

I see so many of you walking through life angry, afraid, bitter and disappointed. Some of you think you’ve found God in that anger, and others have decided he’s to blame, or worse that he doesn’t even exist.

If you have read this far, I urge you to reconsider your stance for just a moment. Ask God to reveal himself to you. He is not a church or a pastor or anyone who messed up and told you wrong.

I ask you, old friend, are you at peace right now? Are you fulfilled? Do you find yourself living fearlessly in a world full of fear? Do you have purpose and joy and meaning and clarity in your life? Anxiety, depression, and confusion are not your portion. You don’t have to live like that! There is another way.

I’m here to tell you it’s real. He’s real, and he can burst through your decades of indifference and unbelief instantly. Forgive those who messed up. They were walking in the light they had. Reconsider.

The days are evil, my friends. We are not promised tomorrow. Choose today to be the day you come home.

If you’re unsure of where to begin, call me and I’ll pray with you! I’m here for you. My number is 229-225-7745. I want you to have the joy that I have. I want you to come back to your first love, but most importantly, Jesus wants you back. He’s missed you. You are forever his.

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3:14-21‬ ‭