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Jan is a mother of four, two each from two failed marriages. This morning, her 19-year-old lost his temper and verbally crushed his mother with a flurry of profanity and rage. Jan wanted to die, literally. I got the call.
Last year, at the tender age of 44, Bruce became a husband for the first time. Less than a month later, his bride, this time blushing with anger, ordered Bruce out of the house. Their divorce was final last week.
Larry introduced himself to me by telling me how he was betrayed and fired by his corporate board. Then he faced the most insidious wound of all – the church wound. After months of being ostracized, the victim of church politics, Larry finally realized the need for a change. “When your wife has to take a tranquilizer on Sunday mornings just to go to church,” he said, “it’s time to do something different.”
All these people share two things in common. First, they’re living in the Land of Nod (see the previous post). The age that’s given us instant gratification, disposable everything, and technology-on-demand has elevated revolving door relationships to an art form. The people I just introduced you to are Exhibit A.
Second, on Sundays they’re in our church. [click to continue…]
Preston is about 14 months old; his future is literally wide open in front of him. But even as young as he is, he already is feeling the effects of a broken home. He didn’t ask for it, but for the rest of his life he’ll be living in the Land of Nod.
Gina grew up in the perfect family – at least that’s what everyone believed. But they didn’t hear the verbal and occasional physical abuse Gina suffered growing up. Very few understand the strange combination of anger and shyness that marks her personality today. But the long trail of disrupted friendships and broken romances tell the painful story. Gina is living in the land of Nod.
In the aftermath of history’s first broken relationship, the Bible says that Cain “went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the Land of Nod, on the East of Eden” (Genesis 4:16). As a race, we’ve been living in the aftermath of broken relationships – in the Land of Nod – ever since.
Are We Still That Clueless?
It’s amazing. Thousands of years of history have passed, and we’ve learned an awful lot. These days the knowledge available to the world doubles at rates we measure by minutes rather than centuries. What’s more amazing to me, however, is what we have yet to learn. [click to continue…]
Dear Daniel,
Thank you for taking the time to share your heart and concerns with me last week. I respect your honesty, and am frustrated that you have experienced so many disappointments and hurts in your church relationships. While I can relate to many of them, only you know how savagely this has impacted your life and the life of your family members.
I know it has to be a bit surreal to always feel as though, in your words, “you kept missing the memo” about what was expected beyond a simple faith in Christ. And to be caught in between two conflicting women “leaders” had to have felt like a no-win situation.
I still don’t understand what the whole turf war stuff was all about. But I do understand the tension between trying to show grace and love to someone in deliberate sin and yet not approving the lifestyle. I guess until Jesus comes, we’ll still be arguing about that one. [click to continue…]
