My Dearest Darling Children,
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but since I’ve been a Giant Buzz Kill basically since the first time you tried to put your tiny toddler fingers in an electrical outlet and I frantically screamed “NOOOOOO!!!” — I guess you’re kinda used to hearing this sort of thing from me. So here goes:
You guys are in serious trouble. Well, at least the older two of you are. Your little brother isn’t quite old enough to have gotten in this deep yet—but I actually hope his day is coming.
Why, you ask, are you up to your knees in tribulation?? What did YOU DO to deserve this?
It’s simple, my babes: you made the decision to follow Christ.
And for this reason, because you live in a messed-up, broken world that eschews Him who came to save it, you’re in trouble deep.
Ask me how I know.
Ok, don’t ask. I’m going to tell you anyway.
In this life, ALL of us have trouble, my babies. No one is immune to disease, car wrecks, depression, natural disasters or tragedy. Not a one of us.
But the Bible says that those of us who follow Christ are in for a special kind of trouble with the world in which we have to live. In these times especially, most of the people (beloved of God, precious in His sight, though they are) we live with and around will reject Christ. They will reject letting Him rule over their lives, they will reject taking up their cross, they will reject dying to their own wishes and wants and putting others first. But in this they will also reject FREEDOM, freedom from sin, freedom from rejection, freedom to be perfectly and wholly cherished by their Creator.
And they will also reject you, my loves. It may be people you work with, it may be your friends, it may be even be family members who will cast you off for following Christ. As for myself, I’m a writer, and people who don’t agree with what I write about my faith in Christ and the things that it compels me to believe and do have called me ugly names and wished some pretty bad things to happen to me. They are bold in their hate and rejection, as I was bold in my faith and conviction, so they put it in writing, too.
