Rejected!

On Fridays we do not have Prayer as the Muslims use the Chapel for their prayer. What I have been doing for the last two Fridays is going down and sitting on the front porch with the Chaplins assistant, a young man named Matthew. I am not sure but he can't be anything over twenty one years old.

Each week I have arrived and he has reminded me that there is no Prayer as the Muslims are having their prayer. I agree and then grab a Bible and a Hymnal and ask if I can just sit with him. You see the first week instead of praying we sat and talked about faith. I would have expected that a Chaplins Assistant would be a Christian but I guess in the Military that is not always the case. Turns out that he is a Hindu. Yes the Chaplins Assistant from Pennsylvania is a Hindu.

You have to know also that the laws of this country are that you can not Prostilatize. Also that the Military must be all inclusive and not try to convert anybody within the ranks. With this I must be careful how I interact in public however I have a little more freedom than do the Chaplins.

As we spoke last week I just had to ask him how he became a Hindu. This young man began by saying that he grew up Christian in a small town. That his family always went to church and was very active there. He had done all the same things that other kids had done there including Mission Trips and the like. By his own account he was very Spiritual and knew God but he always had questions for the leadership and teachers. He stated that he was always curious and inquisitive so he asked them about all sorts of things relating to God and science and stuff. He was just trying to figure things out for himself.

Apperently at some point some of the people in the Church did not like the questions he was asking and the Church asked him to leave. I don't know the exact details of this but he was pretty clear that his parents were very disapointed and he never returned to the church again. Now from what I can tell from talking to him is that he was not a drinker or partier and that he was for the most part your average teenager. He however expresses that he felt rejected and judged by the people at the Church.

With this he felt that he was still faithful and beieved in God so he continued to search for the "truth" of God. He says he found it in Hinduism and began to persue this in his life. I have to say for a young man he is pretty well versed in the religion. He indicated that this has created a little rif with His family but they support him in what he was doing. He also became a Chaplins Assistant so he could continue to persue his faith and faith in general.

My heart truly goes out to this young man, as should all Christians hearts. He had a relationship with the Lord, his family was faithful, he was doing the right things, and from his perspective his church rejected him. His words were "thats not the God that I knew". I actually cried in front of this young man. I expressed the fact that if I had entered our church and had been rejected by hypocracy then I would probably been dead by now. Think about this tragedy. Think if this is happening within our congregation.

Our conversation turned to the difference between God and man. That he was judged by man not by God and that his statement was correct, it was not the God that he knew. That the people of his church had judged him, not God. That the God that he and I knew allowed for questions and searching. That the God that he knew wanted us to come to Him with understanding and faith. That the God that he knew tells us not to judge others, that judgement is His.

I try to show him compassion and understanding as the lack of that is what caused him to seek a differnt path then through Jesus Christ. I try to express my interest in him as those that rejected Him found more interest in their religion then in the life of this young man. I try to offer him honesty as those that judged him were not honest in who they were, as we are all in the same boat. I try to listen as those he asked questions of didn't hear him seeking. I try to show him Christ.

How many have come to us seeking Him and have been rejected by our hypocracy. How many children have moved in other directions because we were too interested in the paticulars of the religion rather than the fostering of the relationship. How many have come to us, to Him, seeking rest and only to have us reject them before they had a chance to reach Him.

Imagine that Jesus stands in the front of our sanctuary and that every guest, every poor man, every child seeking answers must walk past each and every one of us first, before they get to Him. What would they see? What would they hear? What would they feel as the eys of us all look opon them? If not Christ, then our heads should be down in prayer that we become more like Him who has NOT rejected us.