Listen

I had been running on battery power for too long and the warning light had changed from orange to an unwelcome blinking red. The reserves in my soul were finally running down to near empty; I was lost and hope of a miraculous turn of events was fast fading.

In April of that same year I had bought a Bible. Owning a Bible is one thing; opening and reading it is another. I did not have a mentor. I was not part of a Bible Study. Basically, I was a formerly proud member of a vast new class of biblically illiterate Americans. Up through my teenage years I had attended church; I had been baptized and confirmed as a child but what little faith I had, I freely abandoned for the far more popular religion of self reliance and self indulgence.

So I looked down at this brick of a book and asked myself why bother to read it? How can it provide relevance to my own sorry situation? If I were to decide to explore its pages, where do I begin? Where so many of my contemporaries had rejected the faith of their youth, why would I turn to the pages of the Bible for answers to my own self inflicted crisis? How could it help?

But I did open that Bible and I did begin the long journey of coming to know it and love it. Years later, the answer to my many question became apparent and it came to me from one of the Bible's best know psalms. For even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death; I came to realize that I am not in fact alone. When, early on, I choose to walk through this life on solo power, I inevitably lost that power and found myself without the resources to get to a safe place. As with so many of my contemporaries, I end up as little more than spent fuel.

The stories and accounts in the Bible speak to another source of power: the Holy Spirit of God that wants to abide within the heart of each one of us to restore our soul to the vibrant life God intended for us from the beginning.

As I began to engage the pages of the New and Old Testaments, I slowly learned to listen to what the ancient words were telling me about my own condition here and now. And as I began to absorb what I was hearing, I started to experience the cracking of my own shallow assumptions about the world and my place in it. I began to move from believing I could live a good life without God to believing I could not survive even one short day without Him.

The Source of Widsom

There was a time when I believed, truly believed, that wisdom, insight and success came from...me. And so, it is not surprising that eventually I would run off the road and end up in a ditch.

When you are blinded by self-regard, it is hard to steer a straight course. The really sad thing is that I was a typical example of my “boomer” generation. We were swerving all over the place when we thought we were plowing straight ahead.Ironically, the experience of disaster eventually restored my sight and my sanity. And with the restoration came the realization that victory of any kind can never rest with the singular possessive.

Jeremiah the prophet once wrote, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth for in these I delight.’”

Amazing Grace

To be human is to know trouble.

Many years ago, I found myself facing bankruptcy, threats of lawsuits and financial devastation. With blinding speed, my self-confidence was blown away and I was rendered defenseless. Fear filled every corner of my life. But when the chips were down and there was absolutely nowhere to turn, I cried out to God in my distress...and He answered.

Trouble is the common denominator in everyone’s life. Sometimes it is subtle and sometimes dramatic, but it always seems to be lurking on the fringe ready to pounce. In my case, when I found that I could not save myself, I called out to God, not knowing what to expect. What I received was undeserved beyond measure, and ultimately, the experience drew me back to Jesus Christ.

It was truly a life saving event; I was saved through my failure. I now look upon that period in my life as the time when I experienced God’s amazing grace.

In Times of Trouble

Who hasn’t experienced trouble? Who hasn’t been at the end of their tether? “Man is born to trouble” but this truth runs contrary to our fond fantasy that life is an easy pathway to a series of peak experiences on the stairway to heaven.

When trouble did come my way, it broke over me in waves. I should have known better, but I assured myself that I could successfully navigate to a safe harbor. Yet the storm only intensified, and I was pounded by the waves and blown and tossed by the wind. Like Jonah, “The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me…and to the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth barred me in forever.”

In my own day of trouble, all the usual answers proved to be empty and dangerous. And so when all options were exhausted and all doors had closed, I finally abandoned self reliance and prayed to God for deliverance from this impossible danger and distress. My situation was desperate, truly unsustainable, but miraculously I was lifted out of that storm and placed on a safe and secure rock.

Twelve years later, I was reminded of that storm and the miracle that saved me. During a Christmas Eve service at a local church, a group of children handed out little candy canes with a handwritten verse from one of the psalms tied to it. I almost rejected the small gift, but at the last moment, I accepted it. The note was this: “‘Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.’” My eyes were suddenly opened, for I realized then and there why I had experienced that miracle so many years before. I also realized that I was being called to honor God with the life that had been saved. And at that moment, I experienced a new freedom that I had never known before.

Walking in Faith

Change is an iron law of the natural world, but it is a law that applies to the spiritual realm as well. God calls us to change; He asks us to depart from the rutted path we often tread and depart for places that may be new and unfamiliar. He calls us into service as He called Moses in the desert or David from the sheep pens or Paul from his zeal to persecute the new followers of the one who had died on a cross.

Though we often resist the call to leave the comforts of a safe life, God keeps nudging us to get up and go; He calls us to trust and have faith, even though we might interpret the call as nothing more than a risky venture. But before anything can happen, we must respond with an affirmation that allows us to transcend our inertia by turning our fears and trepidations over to the one who is calling us: “Here I am, I have come...I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”(Psalm 40:7) When we acknowledge God in this way with our very lives, His way no longer seems objectionable or intrusive.

God is always challenging our comfort zone; this spiritual pattern manifests itself on almost every page of the Bible; the truth is that walking in faith generates a higher level of comfort which many describe as a state of joy that overcomes our natural fears in all circumstances: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”(Psalm23:4)

WHERE I WILL BE ON SEPTEMBER 12

Most Saturdays, I choose to unwind at home, but not this week. On Friday I will be driving down to Washington DC to participate in the 912 march up Pennsylvania Avenue to the United States Capitol. I have no idea what I will accomplish by being a part of this rag tag crowd, but I have come to the conclusion that it is time to stand up and be counted. So what is behind this journey to the nation’s capitol? I have several reasons and I will list them in no particular order.

1. I have been inspired and encouraged by the ordinary Americans who believed it was important enough to show up at town hall meetings and be heard. If our congressmen and women lived in a bubble before August, they certainly have experienced a sharp injection of reality since then. So, my participation this week is in honor of all those who have already stood up against the powerful forces that control the politics of Washington.

2. I believe both political parties have been on a reckless financial joyride which will, in the end, destroy America. I can choose to do nothing, or I can raise my single voice in protest against the outrage that is present day Washington.

3. I am a businessman. I own three companies, all small by Washington’s standards because I cannot send lobbyists to walk the halls of congress to plea for my interests. I am one of tens of thousands who employee people, who provide services to other companies and who through diligence and hard work, have created opportunity for many people.

4. I have believed for some time that our political culture has devolved into something approximating a crime syndicate with only members of the immediate family benefiting from the corruption.

5. I believe that this disaster can be stopped, but we are pretty near the invisible line of no return.

6. If this event were organized by either of the major political parties, I would not go. Both have discredited themselves by their endless profligacy, and they will have to earn back our trust which will take years if not decades.

7. Twenty years ago, my company went through a chapter 11 bankruptcy. Before the bankruptcy occurred I behaved no differently than our political leaders in Washington are behaving today. They are bankrupting this great country, but believe that it will all work out in the end. It won’t. There are many more losers in bankruptcy than winners, and in the case of the United States, the taxpayers will be the giant losers.

8. I am the father of four children; they are starting out in life, but given the current crisis, will they inherit the land of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln or the land of Castro and Chavez?

9. I go to Washington in hope that the outcome will change because of the commitment of tens of thousands of citizens. This will not be a celebrity party; it will be a people of America party and I will be proud to be one of them.

10. An earthquake is about to shake America to the core. Many of the experts have turned off their political seismographs so they are not experiencing the tremors. But the tremors are there, warning of something catastrophic to come. I am going to Washington with the hope that the warnings will be heeded and America, awakening from its long unnatural slumber, will return to the values and principles that made it such a great source of good throughout the world.

11. I go to Washington with a great sense of humility. It is not really about what I want. It is about recognizing what is profoundly right about the United States.

12. Finally, I am going to Washington because of what Lincoln said on the battlefield of Gettysburg: “…that this nation, under God, shall have a new burst of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

How Deserted Lies the City

King David of the Bible placed his life in the hands of a personal, loving and faithful God. As happened many times in his life, when all seemed hopeless and lost he would kneel before his God: “In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free. The Lord is with me: I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is with me: he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies.” (Psalm 118:5-7)

Compare the abiding faith of David to the stupendous claims of so many of our modern leaders who insist on staking everything on the belief that they have been called to power to not only save the whole of mankind but the planet earth as well. These contemporary Caesars may give lip service to God, but their deepest faith rests on their own power to build castles in the sky while commanding the seas to recede. Who needs God when man can construct paradise here on earth? For many of our leaders, it would be too humbling to admit the need for God: such an admission might preclude the possibility of building temples to their own greatness.

When viewed from the sweep of Biblical history, we see that the modern Caesar represents nothing more than mankind’s ancient and persistent rebellion against the presence of God in the affairs of man:

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “’In the pride of your heart, you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.” But you are not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god.” (Ezekiel 28:1-2)

Many of the national leaders of our time have fallen for the same old false promise that has tempted and diverted mankind from the very beginning of written history. Here is God’s judgment against the ruler of Tyre: “…your heart has grown proud.”(Ezekiel 28:5) The hearts of our political and business leaders have grown proud indeed. Perhaps a little more knowledge of the warnings of the ancient prophets of Israel might steer some of these self inflated potentates away from the dangerous consequences of their impossible dreams: “How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave.”(Lamentations 1:1)

The Last Mournful Note

Why are so many of us obsessed with money? On one level, gold does glitter, giving the appearance of prominence and power for those who possess it. Money can create the illusion that time has been expelled from the premises; the lavish parties of the rich cast a spell of beauty and splendor and the music plays on as the quests dance into the early hours of the morning.

For a moment, everything appears to be perfect, but soon enough, time ripples over the scene and all that remains in the end is a wrecked vestige of what was before. The band is now playing its last mournful note, the guests are departing, and the despoiled tables have lost their ordered elegance.

Money has the power to withhold the ravages of time for an instant, but before long it will exact its sweet revenge. If we stake everything on the deceptive power of money, we will live in fear that the cold breath of mortality will find a way back into the innermost rooms of the guarded palace. For despite our futile efforts, we sense in our hearts that “our days are like a fleeting shadow” (Psalm 144:4) that “vanish like smoke.” (Psalm 102:3) Thus wisdom says, “Though your riches increase, do not set your hearts on them.”(Psalm 62:10)

Who Do I Love?

Because the “heart is deceitful above all things,” (Jeremiah 17:9) it is important to undergo a thorough and frequent heart checkup. But this is hard and often inconvenient, so we often spend valuable time inventing excuses for avoiding what might be unpleasant news.

If we refuse to undergo a daily “heart exam,” we might consider wearing a sign around our neck similar to the one found on the side of cigarette packs: “Caution: This heart may kill you!”

Left untreated by God, the human heart is the center of great turmoil and raging conflict. Our affections shift like an altimeter in a storm; one moment we yearn to follow the right way, then the next we turn our back on the Lord just as Peter did three times immediately after claiming eternal allegiance to him. The battle we face every day is over the hidden constancy of our wavering hearts.

In the end, the question for each of us amounts to one thing: whom do I love with all my heart? We can fool ourselves into believing that we have been exempted from an ultimate pledge of allegiance, but when we fall into this common form of self-deception, we are implicitly admitting that the darker impulses of the heart have already prevailed and that, as a consequence, our troubled lives will continue to be “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”(James 1:6)

All Creatures Great and Small

A few years ago I walked 43 miles of the Appalachian Trail in central Pennsylvania. I have many reasons for wanting to get my feet back on the roots and rocks of the trail, but perhaps chief among them is the desire to break out of the artificial box I construct for myself as I maneuver through the concrete cityscape aspect of my life.

I suspect that I need to get closer to the earth itself to refresh my mind and memory to all the small marvels that move about with quiet intention all around my feet. Whole worlds of tiny beings seem to go about their important business, oblivious of my presence or even my existence. You can’t see any of this from the window of a speeding car.

The big things, like the mighty Susquehanna River, or a powerful midnight storm, or even the splendid beauty of the rolling hills of cultivated farmland, do generally catch the eye and cause us to stop in quiet wonder, but it is the smaller things of the land, the insects and tiny creatures when viewed through the lens of the poetic imagination that suggest order and resolve and purpose rather than inscrutability and aimless disorder. For me the trail suggests coherence, but I need to slow down to see it at work and that requires that I put aside my singular drive to get from here to there. So give me the trail any day, for it provides me with bigger themes through the miracle of its smallest creatures: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth....For he spoke and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

A Fellow Passenger

Years ago—I do not remember exactly how many—I was on an airplane heading for Nashville, and like almost everyone else, quietly minding my own business. But I did notice the lady sitting by the window on my aisle; she was looking out at the world beyond our cabin and in her hands was a Bible. She was an older black woman and she possessed a quiet strength and dignity.

Well into the two hour flight we began to talk about the usual superficial things, but I really wanted to talk to her about her Bible, as I had begun reading Scripture a few years earlier. I don’t remember most of the details of our conversation but I was startled when she told me that she was a missionary from Africa who had come to do God’s work here in the United States. Moreover, she told me that she often traveled from city to city without knowing where she would stay or who she would help. Then she told me that the verse that she loved the most was Psalm 121: “I lift my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”(v1) As it turned out, that verse was one of my own favorites.

I have always treasured that simple encounter on an otherwise unremarkable airplane ride to Nashville. My preconceptions were knocked off balance when I was forced to realize that we need missionaries here in America just as much as Africa might need them. But it was not the mission that impressed me. It was the person sitting in that seat by the window, so meek and unassuming, so gentle and faithful. She clearly was one of God’s children doing God’s business in a way that would not attract much notice, but still, she had that unique concentrated power that has been changing the world quietly and effectively one person at a time for over two thousand years.

The Bottom Line

Denying our own sinfulness is as old as human history itself. After succumbing to temptation, Adam and Eve come up with every unsupportable excuse in the book to explain why they recklessly betrayed God’s commandment. Eve said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.” And the man said, “The woman...gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:13, 12)


When we indulge our sinful nature and give way to temptation, we immediately default to self-justification and excuse making. But behind the assertion that "I’ve done nothing wrong” is the uneasy knowledge that I have done something very wrong and my weak claim to innocence will not wash away my very real guilt and shame.

In the Midst of Trouble

Have you ever read a passage from a book and suddenly a line or word or phrase leaps right off the page and grabs you?

Often the eye skims over the surface of the page and the words fail to register on the mind and the heart. You may be thinking of something else or you find other passages more compelling. You read but do not absorb. Then, at another time you reread the passage and, for no apparent reason, that same passage becomes electric and now you see it and feel it for the first time ever.

That happened to me with this verse: “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.” (Psalm 138) With twelve short words, I finally felt the universal truth of those words and how the applied to a crucial moment in my own life.

It would be easy to say that when trouble befell me, I met the challenge and conquered the foe. I could have claimed victory, but my heart told me that the victory wasn’t mine at all. I had walked in the midst of very real trouble, but the trouble never wounded me in a mortal way. I walked through the conflict as if I was an observer rather than one of the battling soldiers. This verse finally revealed to me why I survived. It was not my will that saved me and realizing where my help had come from has made all the difference.

Crimes and Misdemeanors

Apparently Governor Mark Sanford has been involved in some pretty sketchy activities of late. I guess we could all play the part of the offended prig and condemn the poor fellow for some or all of the high and low crimes our wandering governor has been accused of. After all, he has tarnished himself and the high office he holds; he has betrayed his wife of twenty years, not to mention his four sons. And what about the people of South Carolina? No, this governor has earned the almost universal scorn being heaped upon him by commentators everywhere.

Well, I am not going to try to add too much weight to the suffering the governor has been experiencing of late, but I do have a major bone to pick with Mr. Sanford. You see, I am a hiker of the Appalachian Trail and for years now I have been telling my wife, my children and my friends that I am off for another long hike in the woods and the mountains. Yes, and worse, I would come back with tales of storms and bears and creeping things in the night and everyone would listen intently as they learned of my trail heroics. Better yet, they would envy my fierce determination and bravery as I forged ahead toward the lofty goal of getting to Mt. Katahdin, the trail’s terminus in north central Maine.

Thanks to our Lothario governor, though, the hiking population of America has now been consigned to sleeping in their tents in the backyard under the watchful and suspicious eyes of their wives and family. The men of America have lost their campfire bonding moments forever because the smitten governor decided to use the Trail as cover for his real trip to Argentina to see his darling Maria. For this reason alone our dear governor has earned a certain degree of my bitter contempt.

But while his offense against hikers is bad, his love letters to his South American bombshell are even worse.

Didn’t he realize that his saccharin prose, now available for all to see, represents a crime against everything that is true, noble and lovely and that every Romeo out there now has been left bereft by his florid prose? He certainly tried hard enough to match his words to the object of his not so secret ardor, but unfortunately, as he attempted poetic flight, the whole sorry linguistic contraption fell fatally to earth with a fearsome thud:

“You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself… in the faded glow of the night's light - but hey, that would be going into sexual details ...(W)hile all the things above are all too true - at the same time we are in a hopelessly - or as you put it impossible - or how about combine and simply say hopelessly impossible situation of love…. I also suspect I feel a little vulnerable because this is ground I have never…covered before - so if you have pearls of wisdom on how we figure all this out please let me know... In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul."

It boils down to this: Here we have the star crossed governor bleating over the age old dilemma of having your cake and eating it too.

Mark Sanford: Have you no shame! You stand guilty of the crime of mauling the English language. Perhaps you should resign now before you kill another word or ruin another hiker!

Consider the Eye

When we do think about it, we are amazed by images created by cameras. We are mystified by the extraordinary power behind digital technology. We sit transfixed before high definition TV screens often confusing the fleeting image with reality itself. But do we ever stop to consider the original technology that surpasses all the imagery generated by the genius of man?

Take a moment to consider the human eye with its stunning ability to translate trillions of particles of light into images instantly comprehensible to the human brain. We spent time explaining the function of the eye, but we have a rougher time dealing with its original invention. Worse, we tend to avoid the idea that the human eye had an inventor. We may marvel at the highly complex technology behind image making, but at the same time we assume that the far greater technology of the eye just somehow came into existence by chance or by the mysterious laws of nature. Perhaps the original design is far more astonishing than anything we have come up with since through our own ingenuity.

Gods, Kings and Mere Mortals

Evan Thomas made news last week. It is not known whether he was speaking for himself or for the entire editorial staff of Newsweek magazine, but here is the very cosmopolitan Mr. Thomas speaking to Chris Matthews on MSBC. "I mean, in a way, Obama's standing above the country, above--above the world, he's sort of God."

Wow. From mere mortal to “a sort of God” in five short months! But maybe we should pause a moment before elevating Barak Obama above emperors, kings and other assorted potentates. For as often as not, these god-like leaders turn their power against the very people who have chosen to be ruled by them. You do not have to look too deeply into the pages of history to find an A-list of scoundrels once considered god-like saviors. In the long course of human events, it is not difficult to find a palace full of such specimens from Nero and Caligula to Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler. Luckily, Obama has not proclaimed himself to be God…yet.

Furthermore, if Evan Thomas were to look back to Old Testament history, he might not be quite so sanguine about the prospect of America being led by a “sort of God” president.
In the time after Moses and Joshua had died, Israel had no king. Eventually though, the people grew restless and so they demanded that a king be chosen. The people went to the prophet Samuel who turned to God for direction. God tells Samuel: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king….Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”

Samuel does what God commands: He warns the people that the king will take their sons and make them serve in his armies; he will take their daughters to be “perfumers and cooks and bakers; he will take their fields and a tenth of the produce from those fields; and he will take their flocks “and you yourselves will become his slaves.”(1Samuel 8:8-18)

Perhaps Evan Thomas and the editors at Newsweek should be careful about what they wish for. Didn’t our Founding Fathers rebel against the tyranny of kings? Isn’t it more reasonable to think of our president as a mortal rather than compare him to a “sort of God”? Wouldn’t the history of the American experiment suggest that we should resist the temptation to think of our rulers as anything other than mere men? Or would Mr. Thomas prefer to see America suffer the fate of so many nations who ceded power to an all powerful god-leader who then led the people down the well trod road to serfdom?

Tear Down This Wall!

Has conservative talk radio been good for the Republican Party? For five long presidential election cycles, Republicans have offered America presidential candidates who have proved to be verbally challenged. At the same time, the stars of conservative talk radio have climbed from success to success, reaching a daily audience that any political leader would envy to have and creating an impression that conservatism is a force to be contended with in America. We know conservative talk radio has been wildly successful, but it is less clear what it has meant politically. Could the rise of one be linked to the decline of the other?

Conventional wisdom would suggest that Rush, Sean and many other talk show pundits have aided the conservative cause, but there may be a darker side to the phenomenal success of the talkers. Perhaps Republican candidates have steadily declined in power and effectiveness because talk radio has inadvertently separated the messenger from the message. Can you imagine Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy or Ronald Reagan allowing the media to do all their talking for them? Can you imagine, Winston Churchill stepping aside while a radio commentator communicated his inspiring messages to the British people? It would never have happened.

Democratic operatives have gone to some length to proclaim Rush Limbaugh the titular head of the Republican Party. They have a point. While Rush Limbaugh addresses an audience for 15 hours every week, conservative politicians slink around the outer edges of the Beltway avoiding the limelight if at all possible. Being sheepish is safe. It sadly seems that Republicans are afflicted by CAS (Controversy Avoidance Syndrome).

Only when the Republican Party recovers its voice will it have any chance to change the direction of America. It is not enough to become Obama’s Greek chorus. You need political leadership to bring genuine reform. And political leadership needs more than position or title to motivate the greater population for the need for real change. And you cannot divorce the message from the political messenger. Rush Limbaugh could not have said with any authority, “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Only Ronald Reagan could.

A Copy and a Shadow

In the letter to the Hebrews the writer speaks about the priest being “copy and shadow of what is in heaven.” Have you ever thought of yourself and your life as a copy of something else? Or do you consider yourself to be an original?

Elsewhere, in one of the psalms, it says that God had an idea of who we could be even before we were conceived: “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.”

What an amazing thought: God knew everything about each one of us before we even existed. And how agonizing it is when we fall away from God’s intention and pursue the unruly desires of our own unfettered hearts. This is what Cain must have meant when he lamented that his crime had rendered him “a restless wanderer of the earth.”

Unlinked from God’s intention for us, we stray to the right and the left looking for satisfaction where nothing lasting and beneficial can be found. But when we acknowledge at long last that we know we are known and we experience the transformation that brings us back into the genuine comfort of God’s good orbit, then we can say with a full and blessed heart: “I once was lost and now am found, was blind but now I see.”

A Light in the Ruins

An American friend who once lived as a missionary in Ukraine told me a story about an encounter he had with a friendly atheist. This young woman was giving him a tour around the city of Odessa. As they walked from place to place, she began to open up, and at one point, she told him that believing in God was both ridiculous and irrational. How could any educated person believe that God existed? She was not belligerent; she just stated her belief as a proven fact. She indicated that she was doing fine without God in her life.

As they were talking, they came to a blighted intersection that was nothing more than a ruin left over from the devastation of World War II. The decaying and empty structures were fragmented shells. Rubble rather than trees created an impression of an arid wasteland. Even flowers and weeds seemed to avoid this desolate place.

It was at that moment that my missionary friend turned to the woman and gently observed: “Look around. If you want to know what the world looks like without God, here it is.” She gazed at the wretched scene and seemed to make the link between a war torn world and man’s banishment of God. Did she see the relationship between famine, disease and war and mankind’s fractured relationship with the God who created us and nurtured us? Can love even exist in such a place? My missionary friend believes he touched her by using that wretched picture as a way of introducing God back into her life. He did not make his point with words, nor with arguments or talking points. He just revealed the obvious and he let that do its work in her heart.

A Fleeting Moment in Time

Many years ago, during my first long hike on the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire, I witnessed a fleeting moment of beauty that has never left me.

Late one day, after an easy ten miles, I began to search for a place to rest for the night. About a mile or so beyond a small town, I happened upon an empty cabin about fifty yards off the trail. Inside, the uninviting shelter was dark and cold. I dropped my gear and settled in and resigned myself to a night in the woods alone.

After a light dinner, I felt an urge to get away from the cold gloom of that inhospitable place, and so I left it to take a walk toward an open field on a hillside that was surrounded by thick woods. As I approached the field, the light from the declining sun drew contrasting shadows against the bright yellows and greens of the long, uncut grass. It was a picture of tranquility and I was glad to discover it.

As I stood in the midst of this natural still-life, I became aware of three deer grazing above me on the hillside. They didn’t notice me, and so I quietly gazed on that scene of solitary beauty. Time seemed to suspend itself: even the wind briefly stood still. Just as quickly, though, a soft breeze cut across the scene and the deer lifted their heads in unison, sensing an intruder. They hesitated a moment and then vanished into the shadows of the surrounding woods. Once again, I was alone in a once bright place that was now turning cold as the ghostly dusk transformed the waning light into varying shades of grey.

Now, all these years later, I remember that beautiful scene as if it were an image painted by God himself. I felt the warmth of God’s peace that day, but I had to turn back to the cold embrace of the solitary cabin. I did not know then that the journey ahead would often be long and hard. Yet, wherever life took me, I carried with me that image of beauty and peace as sustenance for those times when I would experience hunger and thirst.