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Speaker 1: Life Audio Welcome to the Crosswalk Devotional. We are so

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Speaker 1: glad to have you listening with us here today. Today's

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Speaker 1: topic is about when young adults stray. We will return

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Speaker 1: after a brief message from our sponsor. When the Young

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Speaker 1: Adult That You Love Strays Written by Mayna Mawara Read

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Speaker 1: by Rochelle Alberti Bible Reading We all, like sheep, have

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Speaker 1: gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way,

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Speaker 1: and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of

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Speaker 1: us all. Isaiah 53 6 As a former youth pastor,

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Speaker 1: one of the things that I cherish the most is

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Speaker 1: running into former students. So in one week, Two students

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Speaker 1: that I had the privilege of ministering to crossed my

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Speaker 1: path at the same time, which was not unusual, being

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Speaker 1: that I have lived in the same city on and

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Speaker 1: off for over 25 years. What was unusual was the

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Speaker 1: different paths that both students have taken. I can still

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Speaker 1: remember when Thomas and Chris both made professions of faith

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Speaker 1: at the same camp. It was a summer that I

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Speaker 1: will never forget, as both boys, now young men, were

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Speaker 1: also baptized the same day. As Thomas approached me in

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Speaker 1: the middle of the grocery store, I still remembered his face.

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Speaker 1: Just as I locked eyes with Thomas, his wife and

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Speaker 1: kids came around the corner. All I could think of was, wow,

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Speaker 1: pine flies! Thomas and his wife both love the Lord,

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Speaker 1: and Thomas is even involved in the same church that

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Speaker 1: I was on staff at many years ago. I walked

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Speaker 1: away from that encounter thrilled that Thomas was still on track.

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Speaker 1: Although there was a moment in his life when he

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Speaker 1: had strayed, he had found his way back. That same week,

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Speaker 1: while eating lunch in another part of town, I ran

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Speaker 1: into Chris. Chris walked in dressed in a suit and tie.

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Speaker 1: He also looked just like he did in his former years.

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Speaker 1: During my time with Chris, he mentioned that he cherished

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Speaker 1: the years we'd had together, but that he had stepped

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Speaker 1: outside the faith and hasn't been involved in church for years.

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Speaker 1: As Chris walked away, I couldn't help but reflect on

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Speaker 1: what went wrong and right with both Chris and Thomas.

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Speaker 1: Although that's a human thing to do, author Jim Burns

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Speaker 1: would say that it's the wrong place to start. Recently,

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Speaker 1: I spent some time with Jim Burns, who has written

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Speaker 1: on the topic of young adult issues and dynamics, and

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Speaker 1: has a new book titled, When Your Young Adult Child Strays.

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Speaker 1: Jim is clear that when a young adult strays, putting

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Speaker 1: on the martyr badge isn't the step that we should

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Speaker 1: be taking. During my time with Jim, he assured me

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Speaker 1: that God is okay with mess-ups, and in fact, we

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Speaker 1: have an entire hall of faith in Hebrews that confirms this.

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Speaker 1: One of the key characteristics that both men mentioned during

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Speaker 1: our time together was community. Both men mentioned either how

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Speaker 1: much they loved their community, or in Thomas' case, how

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Speaker 1: much they'd missed it. Burns' research shows that 65% of

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Speaker 1: young adults who strayed returned to their faith communities. I'm

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Speaker 1: not surprised by this at all. Thomas mentioned that after

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Speaker 1: he had strayed away from the church, it was his

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Speaker 1: community of friends and a former Sunday school teacher who

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Speaker 1: reached out to him in his time of need. Community,

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Speaker 1: mixed in with being available for young adults, is one

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Speaker 1: of the keys that brings those back who stray. Both men,

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Speaker 1: whom I had the privilege of ministering to, were unique

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Speaker 1: and different in their life choices. During my time with Chris,

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Speaker 1: it was Jim Burns' words that I had to stay

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Speaker 1: focused on most. Chris has made some life choices that

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Speaker 1: clearly go against scripture, and although I wanted to add

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Speaker 1: my thoughts and opinions, I had to remember the words

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Speaker 1: of Jim, acceptance doesn't mean approval. Often when young adults stray,

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Speaker 1: we love them either as their parents, or in my case,

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Speaker 1: former students in my youth ministry, and we want to

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Speaker 1: fix them. Jesus never tries to fix us. In fact,

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Speaker 1: he does the opposite. Young adults don't want to be fixed.

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Speaker 1: In fact, I would go as far as to say

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Speaker 1: that people in general don't want to be fixed. In

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Speaker 1: bringing young adults back home into spiritually healthy communities, these

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Speaker 1: three things will be of great help. Love them, try

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Speaker 1: to point them into healthy communities of faith, and accept

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Speaker 1: them for where they are in this stage of life.

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Speaker 1: Another way is showing them the grace that you needed

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Speaker 1: when you were their age. At the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: according to Burns, young adults are simply asking, Do you

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Speaker 1: still love me? Thanks for listening to today's devotional. If

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Speaker 1: you liked what you heard today, we want to make

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Speaker 1: sure you know about our sister podcast, Your Daily Prayer.

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Speaker 1: looking to grow in prayer or start your day with

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Speaker 1: your heart focused on the right things, search for Your

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Speaker 1: Daily Prayer in your favorite podcast app and be sure

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