Church & Community
A leader I trusted and learned everything from has walked away from the faith. I do not know what to do with that.
“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.”
This psalm was sung by a people who had watched king after king, each one hoped in heavily, either die or fail them. Its warning is not cynicism about human beings but realism about where weight can safely be placed. Israel learned it slowly and expensively across centuries. The line is not there to shame you for having trusted someone, it is there because every single person does.
“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.”
Near the end of his life Paul names, without softening it, a co-worker who left him and the reason why. Demas had been listed alongside Luke as a fellow worker in earlier letters, part of the inner circle. Paul does not explain it away or pretend it did not wound him. The New Testament records its own defections plainly, which means you do not have to make sense of this before you grieve it.
A path forward
Separate what you learned from the person who taught it. Take one thing that leader gave you and check it directly against scripture. Whatever holds up was never theirs to begin with.
Let yourself grieve this as a loss and not only as a scandal. Tell someone you trust that you are shaken, and do not lead with the theological questions if the real thing underneath is grief.
Pray for them by name, once, with no agenda attached. It is uncomfortable, and it hands them back to God instead of leaving them sitting in your chest.
Closing verse
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
- Hebrews 12:2
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