Prowling Lion and Fleeing the Flock

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:25

God designed us to be in community, working together, bearing each others' burdens, spurring one another on...so I believe that satan wants nothing more than to get us separated from fellow believers. Then it's easier for him to whisper lies and have us believe them. That's what happened to me when I moved to California.

I moved there to further my teaching career, with more opportunities being available than in the southeast Kansas area where I was. My sisters lived in San Diego, so when I moved to LA county, I saw them a lot more often, which was wonderful! That, and starting a job I loved, was great, but leaving our home church, where we'd been actively involved, wasn't so great. I was so hesitant to become involved in a new church, so when the boys and I visited a new church, I would arrive late to avoid the 'meet-n-greet handshake time' and leave during the last song to avoid follow-up 'so tell me more about yourself' conversations. The more I became uninvolved in church, the more I felt unworthy to even be in church. I felt like everyone but me was happily married, with settled lives, and that I just wouldn't fit in. I'm sure satan was off in the corner somewhere, giggling about the whole thing. The further we get away from Truth, the more believable lies become.