GOING DEEP

Here is a story and some thoughts on the condition of the deception that sometimes takes place in our churches.


Jason, a believer, was looking to get married. To narrow down his search, he began considering the young women attending his church. After careful observation, he decided to pursue a young woman with who he saw himself matching well.

He saw Elizabeth as a woman passionate about God, a quality that was most important to him when searching for a wife. Though his heart pounded every time he set eyes on her, his top priority was that she be serious about the Lord.

Jason began talking to Elizabeth, and she seemed just as interested in pursuing a friendship. They became serious about their relationship and were soon talking about the great M word—“marriage.” Things naturally progressed, and they were happily married at their church.

After the wedding, life was roses for a short while. Somewhere during their first year together, Jason noticed a decrease in Elizabeth’s enthusiasm toward the marriage. The magnet that seemed so strong in pulling them together just months ago had lost some of its force.

On Sundays, Jason took Elizabeth to the church they had attended prior to their marriage. The sparkle in Elizabeth’s eyes had faded, though. She seemed restless and bored with the preacher’s message. As the weeks and months passed, Elizabeth became more reluctant to attend church.

Finally, one day she stopped attending church altogether. Being greatly concerned for the well-being of his wife, Jason inquired about the changes. Elizabeth was very up-front with her husband. She said that the life Jason had wanted for their family was not the life she wanted for herself. She was still young and wanted to live her life as she pleased.

To her, a relationship with God would restrict her from what she wanted to experience in life. This was crushing news to Jason. Why had the woman he married not chosen to tell him these things before they made a lifelong commitment to each other? Why did she lead him on in to a relationship that was not real? He did not have answers to these questions or peace in his heart.

Jason would sadly get up on Sunday mornings and make his way to church, now without his beautiful bride. His face was gloomy, and his eyes mostly avoided eye contact. While at church, he hoped others would not ask about his wife’s absence.

Elizabeth seemed so perfect during the months before their marriage. She seemed to have such a passion for the Lord with her interests being quite similar to Jason’s. Had he known that deep down she was not an authentic Christian, he would not have taken such a great step with her.

She had been so good at playing the role of a believer that Jason had not hesitated to make her his wife. She was able to cover her true character until she got what she wanted, or better said, whom she wanted and deceived a good man in the process. She sold herself to be someone that, in reality, she was not. She had put in to practice a great deception as though it was a work of art.

Some Christians are similar to Elizabeth. Much of their life is buried deep within their hearts. When observed at church, they are impressive, seeming to possess all the qualities necessary for a successful marriage, leadership position, or business partnership. They are godly, loving, caring, considerate, hardworking, and everything else one would want to see in a parent, child, spouse, and employee.

Sadly, the Christian life, as seen at church, is not the Christian life that many professing believers live on a daily basis. For many believers, their Christian talk is different from their Christian walk. The Christian talk takes place on church campuses and in the presence of other Christians. When with believers, the average Christian has it all together. He shows a passion and a desire for relationship with God and other people, an amazing insight in to what it means to know God and His word.

Outside of church it is a whole different story. Lying and cheating are commonplace. Greed and infidelity are in style. But the lying, cheating Christians puts forth a great effort to cover this part of her life. She makes sure that those in her church community don’t see her anger, jealousy and lust.

A Willingness to Touch

Below are a few thoughts I have writen, from the passage in Mark 1 where Jesus touches a leper.

Though the leper was considered highly contagious, Jesus was willing to touch him. There is a very important principle that arises from the way Jesus acted toward the leper.

Oftentimes we will only be able to help those that we are willing to touch. If we look at people through the lens of favoritism, we will never get close to them; we will never be able to touch and impact their life.

There are many ways for us to touch the lives of the people around us. We can touch someone’s life through great things as well as the small.

If someone is drowning and I jump in and save them, then I have touched that person’s life in a great way. But in order to save that drowning person, I have to touch them. I can’t save him/her without jumping in the water and grabbing them. There has to be that willingness to touch.

I am much more likely to touch someone’s life in small ways however. In fact we can touch people’s lives in small ways every day. If I take my neighbor some cookies, I touch their life, but I first have to touch their doorstep. By helping a friend with his taxes, I touch his life, but I first have to touch his papers. In order to touch a life, we need to touch the individual.

The individual whose life I do not touch is being relayed a message. “You are not important enough for me to touch.” If I do not touch the life of family or friends, I am saying that I do not care about them.

Do you get close enough to people that you can see the pain in their eyes? Are you able to see the sad smile on their face?

I once drove somewhere with a couple of guys from the youth group. On that day, we spent a few hours chatting and enjoying the scenery. We then each went our separate ways, but I noticed that throughout the week, both guys that had been on the trip with me kept coming to my mind. Even as I prayed, they would pop into my thoughts, and I would bring them before God in prayer. I found it interesting that the guys kept resurfacing in my mind even after just a simple drive.

Looking back, I understand that God used the “touch” principle to push me to pray for the guys. Because I had seen these guys, I had in a way touched their life, and God was able to use that touch later to remind me to bring them in prayer.

If you want to be used by God in a great way, start by touching people’s lives. Touch them by spending time with them; touch them by calling them on the phone. These things can become a marker in reminding you to pray for a specific person and her needs.

I heard about a woman who loved to pray for the sick at the hospitals. She did not pray for them from the comfort of her living room or church pew, however. She made it a point to actually go to the hospital and pray for them there. She would walk from room to room praying for the sick, her experience being a prime example of the desire to get close and touch.

There are many in need of a touch. Let’s get out of our houses and our selfish lifestyles and begin touching people. We need to look beyond the extraordinary and begin touching everyone, even those that others might label untouchable.