Younger Years.

I look back on my childhood friends. Friends of parent's friends, friends from school, friends from church. The kids of my elementary years. And I suddenly get this sunken feeling in my stomach. I cannot think of a single person who I have known from an early age who is following Christ and hasn't chosen a path that glorifies themselves. Not a single one. What's scariest to me about this is that I grew up in Christian schools, Christian environments. There is no point in denying it: I was a pretty sheltered kid. So I'm left wandering: what happened?? I know full well I am not perfect. But why do I feel like the only one standing after 18 years of living life? Where have they all gone? More importantly, why have they all gone? What made my childhood friends feel the need to seek other paths? What appealed to them? Is this the the type of people modern Christianity is breeding? People who are aware of God but do little about it? I want to know why. Why they don't see the God I do. Because if they saw the Savior I see, the Savior I love, the Savior I rely on, I can't imagine they could turn their backs on something so sweet. So who is the Jesus they see? Who do they imagine him to be? Is he just a figurehead of a religion of empty promises and false hopes? What false images of Christ are we, as followers of Christ, supposed to be breaking and replacing with truth?

photo cred: film by hannah basalone