The Great Divorce
I open my commitment prayer, "I am Yours, and You are mine." I have shared this with you in the past. I remember the first time I "committed" to the commitment prayer. It did not roll right off my tongue, its deep truth did not reveal itself in that moment. Much like the commitment vows I made to Jeff 28 years ago, the reality of the words of commitment are only discovered with time. Jesus freely espouses himself to each baptized christian. He commits to His "yes". He unites Himself to us and to every promise that He has made. In prayer one morning I felt acutely His great pain at the reality of the [Great Divorce] of the current and last century. There is great debate in our society as to what constitutes "marriage." What most agree upon is that it is a commitment made for a lifetime. A commitment that has a failure rate of 45% currently. I remember when it hit its all time high of 53% and the societal murmur of concern. When the Spirit placed the words [Great Divorce] upon my heart He was not pointing to this statistic but one that should be of far greater concern and alarm. It is not a singular statistic but a grouping of them.
90% of confirmed young adults no longer practice their faith.
Among the 31.7 percent of Americans adults who say they were raised Catholic, 41 percent no longer identify that way (fyi the numbers for other denominations aren't greatly different)
30% of adults in the United States have no religious affiliation.
This is the [Great Divorce]. We as a society are leaving God, severing our ties, or deciding it's not even worth committing to Him in the first place. We divorce the Lord for similar reasons we divorce each other. Money can be a lot more attractive than Jesus. We have difficulty seeing things eye to eye and He just won't change. Busyness drives us apart. We have a breakdown in communication. We didn't really know what we were getting into. We experience stressors and disappointment and we sense that He let us down. In human marriage it takes two to tango. In our marriages to the Divine, we have an unchanging Bridegroom upon whom the meaning of true love has been defined and exemplified. Our Bridegroom is the embodiment of "willing the good of the other." Jesus isn't high standards, He is perfect standards and that in and of itself may be THE contributing factor to the mass exodus (no pun intended). It can be difficult to feel we will never measure up, pride is so firmly rooted in our nature. If you are recognizing that you have taken steps toward your own [Great Divorce], spend some time with the Lord. As in our human marriages this is the first step in getting back on track. Have an honest discussion about where your struggles lie; what is going well, what needs work. Don't dominate the conversation, give Him time to respond to you. Jesus loves us completely, unreservedly, and unconditionally. He will not walk away. Ask Him to strengthen you in this commitment. Ask Him to better equip you for this journey with Him. Jesus will fill us where we are empty. Statistics are a tool of the enemy lulling us into accepting "new norms." We turn the tide when we decide, each of us, that we will NOT become a statistic.