You'll be fine...

I spent some spare time in the last two days finishing up some books I'd picked up and started a couple months back.

Both were stories that go way back - different stories that cover some decades - and they reminded me of people from the past.

Out of all those people, I remembered many I lost touch with because of the normal processes of graduations, moving, job changes, and so on.

Some of those people I used to "go to church with" and they'd slipped out of our shared relationship orbits and moved on to other things since church was our primary common ground.

I remember attempting to keep in touch or reestablish connection with them over time and different things kept it from coming to fruition - timing, different paths, etc.

One thing I often felt weird about was connecting briefly with people and there was this sense, from me or them - I was never sure - that the distance "had to" remain because they weren't "church people" now.

It was certainly nothing I'd ever wanted to have been a message communicated, but I'm sure it was - it was just something that was in the air of the culture we shared at the time.

_________________________

One of the books I finished was a biography/autobiography of a rock band I've followed for years.  I've been a fan of "behind the scenes" stories of people from different walks of life for a long time.

One of the things that shocked me when I first started reading those kinds of stories was the how the images of the people that I had before reading their backstory could change so very dramatically. 

People or groups I thought were the pinnacle of amazing and probably the best of friends were 100% not that and at times hated each other.  The Eagles are a good example of that, if I remember correctly.

And vice versa - other people who I thought were probably the biggest jerks you could be around were amazing people who had gone through things I never could have imagined.

That's one of the interesting and hard things of learning about people and myself - there's more to know. It was one of the reasons I went to grad school for sociology - to learn more about "behind the scenes".

We bounce off each other like the balls on a pool table - sometimes taking turns shoving and pushing, sometimes being shoved - it's just what we do, it's how we're trained.

I hope and pray/ask God that, more often than not, people take the time to think through their words and actions so they aren't just blinding shoving because they were shoved.

_________________________

Back to those people who I used to know. Some of you who felt like the message you were getting about needing to stay distant because of church, I hope you know it's not true - that shove wasn't intended.

More importantly - way more importantly - I hope you know that just because you're not connected with a church doesn't mean you're disconnected from God or his love or care or continued presence.

I hope you know that "the way back to God" isn't simply "go back to church" but instead that he didn't leave you to start with...and just soak in that idea for a while.

Rejection by church people isn't rejection by God. Being ignored or used as a token person by church people doesn't mean God does that with or to you.  Doesn't work that way.

We all have our own backstories that no one knows about except ourselves. There's a place in the Old Testament that says, "Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy" (Prov. 14:10)

God doesn't play favorites with people like that the way we do. He doesn't ignore you because you don't look like him or didn't go to his school or other criteria we might use.

I hope you know that you have no distance to travel to be with God - he's right there with you.  He'll never leave you or forsake you.  You'll be fine...