Law And Grace

{To most of you who may read this, the title of this post will not appear to have much, if anything, to do with the post itself. But it has significance to me, and I have my reasons for naming it this way.}

During D-Now, as well as great triumphs, there were a couple of major disappointments. One has to do with a specific person, the younger brother of one of our dear college friends.

Even though I don't use real names here, I still hesitate to specify who it was. But it is a young man who has been raised in a family setting very similar to Trissy's and mine. When they first came to the church and we began to get to know them, we were refreshed and blessed by their Godliness and old-fashioned sense of values and living. When the three youngest kids were enrolled in the Christian Academy, and this young man became good friends with another young man in the school who seemed to be needing some Godly influence, I was so glad and thankful, and hoped the one would be that Godly influence on the other.
That was well over a year ago, and though I haven't become "close" friends with him, as I have with his older, college-age sibling, and with his two younger sisters, I've still enjoyed watching him grow into - seemingly - a maturing and God-honoring young man. As an example, he is very accomplished musically, and around that same time, another young person publicly praised his talent. He looked them pointedly in the eye, and stated emphatically, "This is for Jesus."
Though just in his early teenage years, he showed great promise of becoming a dependable and great man.

Then D-Now, and at one point I happened to overhear him make a comment to someone that, though not terrible by most standards, did not strike me as being completely appropriate, and I frowned slightly to myself, thinking that was a rather poor reflection of the general standards of his family.
Later that same evening, my heart felt as though it had been torn open, when one of the other young people made a sort of off-hand remark about a supposed incident this same young man had been involved in. I could not believe it, and though hanging on to the fact that the story was, as far as I could tell, still just a rumor, I hurt so bad to think that it actually could be true.

I hung onto my faith in this dear young brother's integrity, watching and hoping for an opportunity to verify whether the story was true, or just another silly teenager's idea of a bad joke on a friend.
I have not been able to find out for sure on that particular story, but as the weeks have passed since D-Now, incident after little incident have occurred, giving evidence that he is not the same as he once was.
He's been caught texting during at least one church service; he skipped church one Sunday night to play instruments with a friend, who also was supposed to be in church (the same friend, I might add, from the Academy who I and others had hoped he would be a 'good influence' on); during Wednesday night small-group time, he has expressed indifference; and he just generally has an attitude that seems to indicate he may be slipping from a firm foundation, to go floating off listlessly into a sea of indifferent apathy.

There are several people in the church who are very concerned about him.

Yesterday I was in Wal*Mart for something, and I kept passing young people there, and I thought, 'Who will save them from this wicked and perverse generation?! How many will fall prey to the wiles of the Devil - the Destroyer of all that is dear and precious and young and tender? If our own are 'falling away', what is to become of the rest, who have no foundation?'. And of course I understand, nothing will happen that Almighty God does not see, allow, and possibly even cause, to happen. Yet so many times I feel I am being torn apart with the realization of my frailty and helplessness to rescue the thousands, millions even, of starfish that lay dying and vulnerable on the scorching sand.

But, like the starfish story, I can help to rescue one, ten, or maybe even (if I work diligently without delay) a hundred or even a thousand.
I hope the Lord will use me greatly, in the life of this young man, and in the lives of the other struggling young people I have had the honor of influencing and knowing here at the church.

People will disappoint you - no two ways about it. The Lord will not.
And this is not 'the end'. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and of great mercy. Perhaps this dear boy is struggling with some unseen doubt or enemy, that no one knows about, and in his confusion and hardship, he's reacting in the wrong way - pushing away the only true Help that there is.
But there is always hope. While there's life, there's hope. And the Lord works in ways we can not always see. He gives Grace.
Last night after church I was so sad over him. Before I went to bed, I opened my Bible to the book of Psalms, looking for something to give me comfort and reassurance of the Lord's presence and control.
It opened to the first chapter (there was a bookmark there), and I started to flip through it, turning the page. On the next page, in chapter 4, were some verses I'd underlined months, perhaps years, ago; they had been an encouragement in another situation, and as I re-read them, I felt comfort and hope again:

"...commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.
Selah.
...put your trust in the Lord.
...
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety."

I went back and read the whole chapter, and it all seemed to strangely apply to this situation.

To anyone who reads this: Please pray for this friend. I don't know how to pray, how to ask you to pray - just do.

SOLI DEO GLORIA!