Bringing Us Back

“We each must die and disappear like water poured out on the ground. But God doesn’t take our lives. Instead, he figures out ways of bringing us back when we run away.” 2 Samuel 4:14

I had a wonderful conversation with a fellow minister this week, and we found ourselves asking some of the same questions. Though between us I suppose we have over 50 years of evangelical history, we both have discovered a bit of freedom to admit we don’t understand everything about God, including some primary doctrines.

That is not to say that either one of us have even thought about rejecting any central beliefs, but we discussed some of the assumptions we may have made along the way. One of those includes that only a small percentage of people “make heaven”. There is no doubt about how people come to faith; relationship to Jesus by grace through faith is clearly declared to be the only way to salvation. The problem is our personal assumptions about who may or may not have actually come to Christ.

The questions for me began over 25 years ago when my mother passed away. She was a pastor’s wife throughout the first two-thirds of her marriage to my dad. But the denomination was fairly liberal in which he served, and I remember her doubting the divinity of Jesus. “How can Jesus be God if he prays to God in heaven?” was one of her questions. Even before I came to faith, I remember her wondering.

The last third of their marriage, before their divorce when I was 18, Dad worked as a substitute teacher and part-time counseling at the church we attended in Northern California. He later pastored churches in Oklahoma after their divorce. Mom had finished her Master’s degree in Speech and was teaching at the local Community College. It was about five years after becoming a Speech professor that Mom and Dad divorced.

Following the divorce Mom took a major turn in lifestyle. Though hardly touching alcohol at all, after the divorce she began drinking regularly and, in my opinion, became dependent on alcohol within the next seven years. She was drunk nearly every holiday and at least one or two times a week. During this time she also began to use cocaine. As far as I know she was never an addict, but the alcohol continued to take its toll.

Spiritually, Mom all but rejected all vestiges of Christian faith, turning to Eastern philosophies and general spirituality, but disbelieving in an “only way” through Jesus. She always respected Jesus, perhaps loved Him, but certainly walked far away from what most would call a Biblical view of Him and of salvation.

At the height of her dependence on alcohol, Mom died at the age of 52. It was entirely unexpected. She had been suffering stomach pains for several weeks and a doctor had diagnosed it as gastritis. But the cause of death was listed as a perforated ulcer. Believing her doctor’s diagnosis, she consumed aspirin to kill the pain and continued drinking; the two things one should avoid with a perforated ulcer.

The day I found out about Mom’s death I had the longest talk with God ever. I was serving as a Youth Pastor in Sacramento at the time, deeply involved in Evangelical ministry (and still am). I told the Lord that I loved my mom so much that if it were possible for me to experience hell so she could be in heaven, I would certainly do that. And, knowing He loved her infinitely more than I ever could, I told God I would rest in that. Other events that week encouraged me about my mother’s eternal state; but it would take a book-sized chapter to relate them all.

I share story to illustrate what the woman tells King David in the quoted Scripture. David has banished his son Absalom from the kingdom, and Joab, one of David’s commanders, sends her in to encourage David to allow him to return. She ends her request by reminding him that “we each must die and disappear like water poured out on the ground.” In other words, “David, time is limited.”

But then she says an amazing thing about God. For those theologians who might read this, I recognize that the woman is not a prophet, so is not necessarily speaking “for God”. But David accepts her reasoning. She tells him, “God doesn’t take our lives. Instead, he figures out ways of bringing us back when we run away.” If we will admit it, this is a thread that runs throughout Scripture. God is on the side of “life”, both corporeal and spiritual.

She is arguing from an accepted truth about the character of God. This truth, that God not only wants us “alive” (again, in both senses of the word), He also does figures out ways of bringing us back. In this particular scenario, the return is presumed. In other words, the woman presumes that, if David will act like God (figure out a way to bring Absalom back), that there is no doubt what Absalom will do; he will return. It is impossible to create a theory of salvation that presumes everyone is “saved” from the passage, but certainly piques my interest.

If God is truly figuring out ways to bring us back to Him, what if I am one of those ways. What if God has put certain people in my path because I am part of His plan to bring them back? What changes would that make in my thoughts toward them? David was the player that God wanted to use to bring back his rebellious son. What if David had changed his tactics earlier and been redemptive toward Absalom instead of banishing him?

Back to my mom. Knowing that I would have sacrificed my own life, here and now, for her salvation, I know that God, in His love must have been wooing her to the very last brain wave flickered away. If He was figuring out ways to bring her back, then, some way, somehow, with her early knowledge of Jesus, perhaps she loves Him in the way she never did before. And, maybe I better get busy and be the best plan for bring others back to God that I can be.