When they heard I started following the Lord Jesus, my friends locked me in my bedroom and said, “You are a fraud, you are a weak-minded and spineless man. You must have been offered some money.” They told me this “fever of Christ” would wear out in six months, I would come back crawling to them, and they would kick me. But these comments were pale compared to witnessing the emotional turmoil my mother felt because of my decision to leave my former faith and turn to follow Christ.
Born and raised in a non-Christian family, my mother and the influence of my friends drew me towards religion. Growing up in a quintessential North-Indian middle-class household, I naturally believed “all roads lead to Rome.” I practised my faith’s tenets and considered visiting other holy places as an added act of devotion.
My religiosity kept my mother happy. My younger brother was indifferent to religion. And my father had passed away two years before I began following Christ. Apart from friends and my immediate family, I shared a strong bond with my maternal relatives—uncles, aunts, and cousins. My world revolved around these relationships. And this world was about to crumble with my newfound love for Jesus.
Love for Jesus, Resistance From People
People responded in different ways to my decision to follow Christ. Though not a vocal person, my mother expressed her grief in many words and tears. My brother, moved by my mother’s tears, would often yell at me. My friends threatened and abandoned me. And my uncles and aunts decided to cut all ties with me.
When I saw the barrage of attacks against me because I expressed love for Jesus, I often wondered, “Why did I do that?” But in those moments of doubt, I felt the force of the words of the Lord Jesus: “If the world hates you, be aware it hated me first. . . A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (NET: John 15:18, 20).
It seemed I lost everything: my family and friends. Someone said, “You will realise that Christ is all you need when Christ is all you have.” This statement became a living reality in my first year with the Lord. That year taught me the meaning of “carrying my cross.”
In hindsight, my isolation from my loved ones deepened my intimacy with the Lord Jesus. He became everything to me. That intimacy and depth of communion with him prepared me for a long road ahead.
God’s Loving Family
The promises of God and the people of God were the pillars I held on to in the crucible of isolation and rejection. The rest Jesus offered for those who would abide in him made the journey bearable (Matt 11:28). The joy I found in the Lord became my strength (Neh 8:10). I devoured the Word day and night. In it, I found hope and the promise that the Lord would make all things good one day. And I was aware that he was using all circumstances to conform me into the likeness of my Lord Jesus (Rom 8:28-29).
When I felt disowned and orphaned by those I loved, I found a new family in my church. God provided me with a mentor and an older brother in my pastor. Friends became dearer than siblings. The elderly in our church took on the role of aunts and uncles. Having been bereft of a few relationships, God filled my life with many more.
Though my heart yearned to regain the love of my family, I found sufficiency in the love of my Lord and my church. I remember reading the passage about the rich young ruler, following which Peter remarked to Jesus, “Look, we have left everything to follow you!” ” (Mark 10:28, NET).
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, there is no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive in this age a hundred times as much—homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, all with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30, NET).
I realised that Jesus granted me all this in my church.
Learning to Walk in Love and Truth
As I grew in Christ, I realised my family and friends did not hate me. They were disappointed. In my previous faith, everything revolved around religion and its expressions, whether it was a joyous occasion: birthday, wedding, festival, or grief over death. In my decision to follow Christ, I cut ties with all rituals. My absence from all rituals and events seemed like a death. It was like I was no more.
Since then, I have realised how in my new zeal for Jesus, I bore some responsibility for some of the rifts in my relationships. Though my church loved me, it could not offer me the wisdom or caution in the transition, as no one I knew had walked my journey.
We often swing to extremes rather than learning to be loving and truthful. In my pursuit of the truth, I forgot love. I am convinced that things would have been different if I had been more loving in my approach, rather than with my brazen disregard for everyone I knew and everything I once believed. But praise be to God. He is the redeemer of all things.
God’s Redemptive Power
God graciously redeemed my naiveté. After almost three years of coming to Christ, I got married. Out of nearly a hundred invitations, four people from my family attended my wedding. But after two years of being married, a death in the family brought us together. This time, I chose truth and love.
We went to grieve with the family, not on our terms but theirs, in a place that they did not expect. My family, including aunts, uncles, and cousins, began to love and respect us. The greatest gospel for my mother was my transformed life.
And after thirteen long years of observing my life, she came to the Lord. Now, my cousins and elders lean on us for prayer and wisdom. The Lord turned the tables for good in my life. He redeemed my life and the relationships I had lost for the sake of the gospel. Having said that, when I started this journey, I did not know if or how the Lord would do this. I chose love for Jesus and followed him with no strings attached.
But as the apostle Paul says, “Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32, NET)
God is no man’s debtor. When we exalt him, he will honour us.
