Do You Disappoint Jesus‪?‬

In this introspective and scriptural essay, Do You Disappoint Jesus?, author Dennis D. King explores a universal conflict within the Christian walk: the deep-seated fear of being a disappointment to God. Balancing deeply personal confession with powerful biblical examples, the author demonstrates that while human disobedience is an age-old struggle with heavy consequences, it is ultimately met by the overwhelming reach of divine grace and forgiveness.

Personal Testimony: A Reflection of Human Frailty

King opens the essay by boldly positioning himself as a flawed example. He candidly shares that for nearly a third of his life, he largely ignored God and Jesus Christ. He recounts several defining moments along his journey:

•A Youthful Disconnect: As a teenager attending Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) meetings, he clashed with doctrinal teachings that seemed to contradict Scripture—specifically Matthew 23:9—leading him to walk away from organized religion to avoid disrupting the faith of his peers.
•The Crucible of Vietnam: While serving as a Marine in South Vietnam, amidst the terrifying chaos of relentless rocket and mortar attacks, King found himself—like many of his fellow soldiers—crying out to God for protection, only to slip back into a blasé attitude once the "All Clear" sounded.
•The Burden of Avoidance: He vividly recalls sitting in his car reading the Sunday paper while his wife and baby daughter attended Lutheran church services, a memory he reflects on with a sense of lingering shame for letting God down.

Despite these decades of spiritual avoidance, a broken marriage, and personal alienation, King highlights a profound truth: God never gave up on him. Eventually, he embraced his faith fully, became a prison chaplain, and enthusiastically served his church.

Biblical Lessons on Disobedience and Judgment

To contextualize his personal shortcomings, King pivots to a comprehensive review of biblical figures who disappointed the Lord. He establishes that disobedience is not a modern phenomenon, mapping out a history of human failure:

•The Foundational Fall: Adam and Eve chose the counsel of a serpent over God's command, unleashing a domino effect of labor, pain, and exile from Eden.
•The Pitfalls of Leadership: King Saul lost his kingdom due to incomplete obedience driven by human fear, while King David's catastrophic moral failures—adultery and orchestrated murder—brought tragedy upon his own household.
•Instant Judgments: Figures like Lot's wife, who looked back at Sodom, and the New Testament couple Ananias and Sapphira, who lied to the Holy Spirit about land proceeds, faced immediate, fatal consequences.

The Ultimate Triumph of Grace

Critically, King emphasizes that the Bible is not merely a record of punishment, but a testament to redemption. Figures like Moses (who harbored a murderous past), Jonah (who initially fled his divine assignment), and the Apostle Paul (who began as a brutal persecutor of early Christians) were not only forgiven but actively transformed into pivotal instruments of God's will.

King concludes his essay with a powerful message of hope. While human beings will inevitably stumble, mistake-ridden lives are completely covered by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The true "Good News" of Christendom is that genuine repentance is always answered by abundant grace, erasing past, present, and future sins.