An Age Of Deconstruction

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. — John 6:66

I’m at the point of wondering, “Who’s next?”

The reasons have been different, but the trajectory has been the same. “I was a good Christian, but I had questions, the people I had been taught were sinful seemed so genuine and nice, the leaders I looked up to disappointed me, the pleasures I experienced seem so natural that I’m sure they were given by God, after all, who are we to say we have it right, surely we don’t have a monopoly on the truth?”

We’d be tempted to think that the present cultural moment offers unique contributing forces to this age of spiritual deconstruction—which of course, it does—except, ours isn’t the first generation to walk away. It’s happened before. Anyone who has been confronted with the real Jesus, the Jesus who isn’t content to exist in the margins of your life, the Jesus who makes extreme demands of your existence, we’ve all felt the pull toward comfort and the siren’s call of simply walking away.

But really, where would you go? If you’ve tasted him, seen him, heard his voice, felt his touch—if he’s walked at your side for even just a while—where would you go?

It’s not a more coherent argument for religion that’s needed, nor even a more authentic experience of church tailored for the consumer. We simply need more Jesus. It’s where we find life, and a reason to stay.