Meeting the parents

I have always thought that parents universally are happy when their kids experience opportunities they didn’t have. Good parents love to see their kids excel in sports, drama, education, family, etc. Somehow they are able to live vicariously through the achievements of their kids, who take their own progress to another level.
While this ideal rings true in most circumstances, recently however I have come to meet several people whose parents were not so keen on their development (that is spiritually). A young man I encountered in Haiti had been indoctrinated in to a false religion early in life. His parents thus were not elated to find out he had accepted Christ. Another individual had recently converted from Islam to Christianity. He faced intense persecution primarily from his nuclear family. Further still, a young lady feared embracing Christianity due to traditionally religious parents who would oppose this decision.
As I pondered on their stories, I thought of how well Christ’s call to forsake our families fit.

Matthew 10:34-37
34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’[c]
37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Christ’s call to discipleship is so life changing that it could even cause division among familial lines. Consider the text, “a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household”. Hostility from family is something that often occurs to believers who have been radically converted, whether from another faith, or an excessively worldly past. It seems that the change is too drastic, for the parents to handle. Family members with good intentions have found themselves opposing the call to Christ in the new believer’s life. No well meaning parent desires their child to be a radical extremist or fundamentalist. Yet Christ’s call to discipleship, does mean for that believer to live completely different from their pagan or heathen roots.

Maybe you are in a situation like this. You deeply want to follow Christ but worry about what impression he will make when you bring him home. With your eyes on Christ and your mind on scripture, follow Christ in faith. Despite the persecution, the tension and the fallout, if you seek him first, he will work things out for his good…yes even in your family.