Professional leaves

As I was reading something written by someone that is reformed, I came across something that made me smile. They said that prior to their conversion…their salvation…they were ‘a professional leaf’, talking about being blown by every wind of doctrine. I smiled because the description could so accurately apply to so many ‘Christians’ of today.

Years ago I had a passing acquaintance with a woman that was what is called a professional student. This woman was in her thirties and had been going to college for about ten years. And she hadn’t earned a single degree. She would come within about a year of completing a degree and change her mind about ‘what she wanted to be.’

Seeing that description of ‘professional leaf’ reminded me of that woman and her happy status as professional student. She was content to spend all her days going to college, seeking degrees that she never quite completed. And as I made the connection between that woman and the ‘professional leaf’ ‘Christians’ I can easily see how they might blow from doctrine to doctrine happily.

I once babysat for someone that told me she decided to take her children to ‘church’ once so she just picked a ‘church’ and took them there. As she explained it to me, it made no difference which ‘church’ she went to so it didn’t matter which one she picked. I guess for her, it was about exposing her children to ‘church’ and one was as good as another for that purpose.

And I guess, if you think about it, in a way, for the unregenerate, one ‘church’ really is the same as another. If they know not Christ…does it matter what ‘church’ they attend? Even if they believe that they are ‘Christians’.

Often, for the professing ‘Christian’, ‘church’ is about a denomination. It is the ‘this’ kind of ‘church’ and they pick the kind of ‘church’ much the way a person shops for a certain brand of clothing, food, or toilet paper.

My grandmother was a ‘Baptist’. I can’t recall her ever attending a ‘church’ that didn’t wear the label of ‘Baptist.’ For her, ‘church’ wasn’t right if it wasn’t ‘Baptist’. In fact, she barely recognized that there were any ‘churches’ beyond the Baptist ‘churches. There were ‘Baptists’ and there were all the others.

For many years I had a tendency to discount Roman Catholicism as ‘Christians’. I would lump the other ‘Christian’ denominations under the title of ‘Christian,’ but to me, Roman Catholicism was something outside that description.

When I would discount Roman Catholics from ‘Christianity’, a relative of mine would promptly remind me that Roman Catholics are ‘Christians’. At which point I would say, yes, but… And, if only in my mind, I would list the reasons why they didn’t fit the same description. And I would think of how ‘Christianity’ should be labeled differently for Roman Catholics than for all the others.

My grandmother was one of those people that was never blown by all winds of doctrine. She absorbed the Baptist doctrine and to her it was the only doctrine there was. I’m not sure which is…worse. Being blown by all winds or grabbing onto one and never letting go. At least those that are blown by different doctrines are exposed to different kinds of thinking…different beliefs…and maybe, just maybe, they are exposed to different parts of Scripture, that might, maybe, be the seeds that are planted, which the Lord might eventually grow into salvation. Not that He can’t do that with only one doctrine.

But as I thought of the ‘professional leaf’, I thought of those that I have known in my life that would have all claimed the title of ‘Christian’ and saw the ‘professional leaves’ among them. Some that seemed to grow deeper and deeper in faith only to wind up following all manner of teaching.

I think too, of the ‘church’ building I sometimes attend and of how the very first time I went there, what ensured I would return was hearing the preacher say ‘if it’s between Genesis and Revelation we can believe it’s true.’ He spoke of how we should believe all of the Bible and apply it to our lives. And so I returned. But on my last visit to that ‘church’ I discovered something that was shocking, disappointing, and not the least surprising, all at the same time.

In the ‘church’ library there were movies and books of all manner, some by well-known TV heretics. Some that I know have been used in teaching women’s studies. Recently I saw that one of the women that is very involved with leading other women in the ‘church’ is posting things on social media by a TV preacher that is a heretic.

It would seem that even a ‘church’ congregation as a whole isn’t immune to becoming ‘professional leaves’.

I have noticed that this preachers style seems to jump between Baptist, charismatic, possibly a bit of ‘name-it-and-claim-it’, and…who knows what else.

I have even known someone that went from conservative, fundamental, ‘Christian’ to very near Roman Catholic.

Even I spent some time exploring different denominations when I realized that what I was seeing in Scripture was different than anything I had ever heard in ‘church.’ I suppose it would have seemed that during that time I might have been a leaf blowing in the wind. And in a way, I guess, I was blowing in the wind. I was looking for others that saw Scripture as I did. And I didn’t find any. So I blew around a bit. Looking. Searching. But never finding.

I can’t help wondering if that is what the ‘professional leaf’ is doing? Always searching but never finding? In my case I did eventually understand what it was I was searching for. But in the case of the ‘professional leaf’ they never arrive at that place of understanding…or at least some never get there. They keep blowing, bouncing from one tree to the next, drifting on every breeze, hurling through every gust…but they never reach the tree that is Salvation.

Because they are ‘professional leaves.’