A Star to Steer By - Revised!

The beautiful Portland Head Lighthouse on the Maine coast.

It was the flash from this lighthouse I could see from the

balcony of my hotel in Ogunquit, far to the south.

No finite point has meaning without an infinite reference point.

                    Jean-Paul Sartre

 
I am the light of the world.

                    Jesus Christ  (Matthew 5:14)

I stood outside on the deck of my hotel listening to the surf quietly lap the beach. It was a beautiful Maine evening, with stars blazing overhead and a gentle breeze blowing warm for early October. Out in the darkness my eyes traced a dim line of lights running along the shore of the peninsula that jutted far out to sea. Where the lights ended, I assumed, was lands end and where the open sea began. I was curious then, when I saw a light flash much farther out to sea. It didn't take long to realize that the flash was from a lighthouse, which marked the true end of land. It was plain to me then how a lighthouse could make the difference between life and death to a ship sailing off the coast.

My friends and I had to laugh when
we saw this sign in Beijing, China,
north of the Forbidden City. It reminded
us all about the perilous journey of life.

A Point of Reference
As I thought about a ship sailing along the coast in rough waters without a reference point to warn it where it could run aground, it occurred to me how similar this is to navigating through life. Who could argue that life is not perilous? And how many lives have been shattered on the rocks of despair, meaninglessness, alcohol and drug addiction, bitterness, anxiety, etc.

How helpful it would be to have a point of reference to warn us of the dangers in life.

Even John-Paul Sartre (quoted above), a famous atheist existentialist, recognized that we finite human beings need an infinite reference point in order to have meaning. However, because Sartre didn't believe there was an infinite reference point (God), he concluded that life is meaningless. "Man is absurd", he said, "but he must grimly act as if he were not". Sartre had worked through the implications of life without God, and his conclusion perfectly illustrates the hopelessness of the atheistic and secularist worldview.

The flash of the lighthouse interrupted my thoughts. Each time I saw it, I was amazed at how far out the shore really ran.

Worldview
All of us have worldviews that, consciously or unconsciously, guide us through life and affect our daily decisions...decisions that could move us closer to or farther away from dangers that could destroy our lives. Francis Schaeffer noted that our worldviews are based on "presuppositions" (1). For example, the presupposition that is championed at the secular university (and widely in our culture) today is the "uniformity of natural causes in a closed system". Because, it is believed, the system is closed, then there can be nothing outside the system (i.e., God) and therefore, intervention from the outside (miracles or revelation from God) is impossible. With this presupposition, as Oxford mathematician John Lennox so eloquently stated, "we can’t even answer the simple questions of a child: Why am I here? What’s the meaning of life? And so on" (2). This is why Sartre, who believed in the closed system model, concluded that man is absurd.

If, on the other hand, you believe in the "uniformity of natural causes in an open system", into which God can act, then revelation and miracles are entirely possible. We can receive answers to the simple questions of a child because there is a God who can speak into our system (such as through the Bible). He is our lighthouse.Then the statement by Jesus Christ that he is the light of the world (quoted above) makes sense.

View from my hotel balcony on the coast of Ogunquit, Maine.
At night I could see the Portland Head Lighthouse flashing in
the distance at the far right.

A North Star
Francis Schaeffer went on to say that the Bible gives us an adequate reference point, a North Star for our lives in the infinite-personal God. God is infinite (and thus, provides us a needed infinite reference point), and at the same time personal. How was he personal? The apostle John wrote that God came into the world as a human, a person, whose name was Jesus Christ (3). Jesus reached out and touched the lepers (4), which everyone else was afraid to do because they didn't want to catch leprosy! He restored the lame (5) and even brought the dead back to life (6). Its hard to imagine getting more personal than that. In fact, read the New Testament and you will learn of many broken lives that, when touched by him, were healed and restored. Truly his mission had profound implications for those whose lives had been shattered on the jagged rocks of life.

Amazingly, the good news for us is that Jesus is still at work, healing and restoring life to all who accept him!  (7)

The lighthouse flashed again. Its no accident that Jesus described himself as the light of the world, or that John called him "the true light that gives light to everyone" (8).

It was getting late and I was growing tired. But I went back into my hotel room with a supernatural assurance that God was with me. As John wrote about Jesus: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (9)

Footnotes:

This is Your Life

Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead.
 Yesterday is a promise that you've broken.
Don't close your eyes, Today is all you've got.
This is your Life, Are you who you want to be?
Is it everything you dreamed that it would be,
 when the world was younger and you had everything to lose?

                                             -Switchfoot

This song by Switchfoot is inspiring and perhaps a bit haunting. It causes a person to ponder their own life (listen at left or click here to listen to the song on YouTube). When was the last time you've thought about yours? Given the fast pace of life in our culture, or perhaps because we are afraid of what we might find, we probably don't do it nearly often enough.

Think About Your Life
What were your hopes and dreams when you were younger? Who are you now? What are you becoming? Where are you going? These are just a few questions to consider, and others may come to mind as you read this. Are you living from your heart...from the core of your being? Are you passionate about the things you do? What are your relationships like? Do you have close friends, or do you feel alone? Most of us want to make a difference in the world and know that our lives matter.

Existential Angst
There is a general sense of angst running throughout humanity that may tend to discourage us from thinking too deeply about our lives. This existential angst is an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety, inner turmoil, or even dread and despair about our future. Solomon, whom God blessed with exceptional wisdom, put it this way: Laughter can conceal a heavy heart, but when the laughter ends, the grief remains. (1) Solomon actually wrote this to describe every one of us, that one day all of our joy will end in grief. Think about it: Eventually you and I are going to lose everything our heart wants out of life...our health, our loved ones, our very life...everything will be taken from us. Solomon is saying that deep down inside we all know this, even if we try not to think about it, and it causes an underlying sense of sadness.

This is my life: My wife Jannis and I on the deck of
the aircraft carrier USS Midway in San Diego, CA.

Secularism addresses this angst by explaining that we just have to create our own meaning during the brief time we are here. But let's be candid, if we are really here by chance alone, and nothing we ever do in this life will be remembered across the vast oceans of dead time, long after man is gone, then there can be no significance to our lives and no hope. Consequently, unless we have a way of ascribing REAL meaning to our daily activities and to our lives - a meaning that death won't steal - we will live with this chord of sadness. (2)

Loneliness
Solomon recognized something else about human beings too. He wrote: Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can fully share its joy. (3) What he means is that each of us is unique, and the inner motions and movements of our hearts are so complex, so inward, and so hidden that there is an unavoidable solitude about human existence. In the end, nobody, not even your closest friends, will ever completely understand you. Nobody will be able to walk with you everywhere you go. In that sense, you are alone in the world. And we can all sense this too. Maybe its no wonder we don't ponder our lives too often!

Christians have a powerful remedy for the dilemma of loneliness. Namely, we can have an intimate ally in God. Jesus told us that he considers those who put their trust in him to be his friends. (4) Furthermore, God knows us better than we know ourselves, and he is always with us. (5) However, if God is only an abstract concept to you, or if you don't believe in him at all...if he isn't an intimate friend to you, then you are utterly alone in this world. With this kind of isolation, none of us can live the "rich and satisfying life" that Jesus offers. (6) We are men and women created in the image of God, and we are made for relationship with him. (7). As John Eldredge put it: "our deepest need as human beings [is] to live intimately with God." (8)(2)

This is my life: My daughter Erin and I.

A Living Hope

The Apostle Peter explained why followers of Jesus also have an answer to the dilemma of the "angst" mentioned above, and to the problem of death eventually stealing from us all that we hold dear. Peter wrote:

What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

Do I really believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and that I and all who put their trust in him will eventually rise from the dead too, into an eternal life where we will have it all - life healed and whole? You bet I do. In fact, to the Christian, that hope is the "anchor of the soul, firm and secure". (9) The evidence for the truth of this claim, which is beyond the scope of this post, is much more than you might think. (10) If you haven't taken the time to ponder your life lately, or to investigate the claims of Christianity, then why not start now? It could be a life changing...and a life saving experience!

Footnotes:

Experiencing God

If I were a preacher, I should, above all other things, preach the practice of the presence of God.  Brother Lawrence

The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of [the] New Testament. A.W. Tozer

The Normal Christian Life?
There are Christians today who seek and experience God's presence on a regular basis. But in my past, experiencing the presence of God was a topic seldom (if ever) spoken about, even in the church. Converting people to Christianity was an important topic. But what life was supposed to look like as a Christian after conversion was less clear. One of my friends put it best when he said that in some ways we were given a sort of "hold on until heaven" mentality. Just do our best to manage our sins and endure life's hardships until we die, and THEN all will be well. As John Eldredge noted, in many churches the Christian life has seemingly become a dutiful life of following the rules, proper church attendance, and good manners. (1) But is that really authentic Christianity? A.W. Tozer criticized the modern church for rejecting what he called an "experiential heart theology" in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture that implies we are not expected after conversion to crave any further revelation of God to our souls; that if we have found him, we need no more seek him. (2) However, as John Eldrege wrote: "our deepest need as human beings [is] to learn to live intimately with God. It is what we were made for." (3) I agree, and believe it is something worth pursuing passionately even after we become Christians.

My wife Jannis. I'm glad I know
her personally rather than simply
from reading about her in a book!

Knowing About God versus Knowing God 

"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection..." (4)

Reading those words from Philippians a few years ago literally stopped me in my tracks. The implications are what struck me...that we can actually KNOW Christ, and that knowing him is something worth pursuing. I already knew a lot ABOUT God from reading the Scriptures, involvement in Bible studies, learning church doctrine, etc. But you can know a lot about someone without really knowing them. A good analogy is this: Suppose you read a book about your spouse but never met them in person. How does that compare with actually meeting and experiencing...knowing him/her! The difference is huge.

When I read that verse above (in Philippians) I realized I didn't know him on a consistent, experiential, deeply personal level. But I knew I wanted to. 

The Presence of God 
Experiencing the awesome, glorious presence of God is not peripheral, but essential in the life of a Christian. This is actually very good news! Consider these statements from some of the great saints of the Christian faith:

"There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God. Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it.  Brother Lawrence (5)

"When Jesus is by us, all is well and nothing seems difficult, but when Jesus is away everything is hard." Thomas A Kempis (6)

"You have made us for yourself, Oh Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you."  St. Augustine (7)

[Life eternal is] "nought other than that blessed regard wherewith Thou never ceasest to behold me, yea, even the secret places of my soul. With Thee, to behold is to give life; 'tis unceasingly to impart sweetest love of Thee; 'tis to inflame me to love of Thee by love's imparting, and to feed me by inflaming, and by feeding to kindle my yearning, and by kindling to make me drink of the dew of gladness, and by drinking to infuse in me a fountain of life, and by infusing to make it increase and endure."  Nicholas of Cusa (8)

I love this brief (1.2 minute) clip from the movie "The Book of Eli". Denzel Washington (Eli) is citing the first 3 verses of the bible (click on the youtube picture or here: http://youtu.be/BBMrkW8DYgk). I had read those verses many times but as I listened, the words came alive for me as never before. The reverence in Eli's voice and posture are illustrative of someone who knows God personally. 

Practicing the Presence of God
There is much more to be said about this topic than I have space for in this post. If you really want to experience the presence of God, I have cited from several books (see footnotes) that I encourage you to read to help you in this pursuit. The bottom line is that you will need to ardently seek it. Brother Lawrence, who was said to have lived a life abundantly in the presence of God, gave this advice:  "That we might accustom ourselves to a continual conversation with Him, with freedom and in simplicity. That we need only to recognize God intimately present with us, to address ourselves to Him every moment..." (5)

As an example, Hudson Taylor, famous missionary to China in the 1800's, was said one evening to go into his room and spend time talking to God and trying to listen to Him. He experienced a sense of the presence of God and a feeling of joy quite unlike anything he had known before. After this time, he experienced an unmistakable awareness of just how God wanted him to spend the rest of his life. Namely, that he was called to be a missionary to China. (9)

Is it worth it? I'll give Paul (who wrote much of the New Testament) the last word on that:

"Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness." (10; emphasis mine) 

Question:  Do you experience God's presence on a regular basis?

Footnotes:

A Mysterious, Beautiful Fog

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth -

Put out my hand and touched the Face of God.

From poem High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Sitting by a Piper Pawnee C, which I flew as an aerial applicator

Dang! I thought to myself as I woke up at 5 am that Sunday morning in the summer of 1980. I had hoped and prayed to awaken to the sound of a strong wind or perhaps rain outside. But besides a few crickets, all I heard was silence. I peered anxiously out my window and could see the stars shining brightly. It looked like a beautiful day for crop dusting, and therein laid my dilemma.

One week earlier my pastor had asked if I would read Scripture at church on this Sunday morning. I was excited and honored to be asked, and readily accepted. However, even as I accepted I felt trepidation about asking my boss at the airport if I could take off a couple of hours to go to church. He was a stern man and not a churchgoer. And in the business of crop dusting you flew whenever the weather was agreeable, no questions asked. But I figured sometime during the week I would find an opportunity (and the nerve) to ask for time off.

Well, you’ve probably guessed that one week later, on the Sunday I was scheduled to read at church (my name was probably in the program too), I hadn’t yet asked my boss. Okay, not the most responsible, I’ll admit. But I was for the most part afraid of my boss, and especially of what his reaction would likely be to my request (like maybe come at me with an axe or something! Maybe I’m exaggerating, but only a little)!

As I pedaled my bicycle down to the airport, which was only one mile from my home, I contemplated and prayed about how I might handle this. Finally, like any good procrastinator, I decided I would fly a couple of loads and then ask my boss closer to 10:30 am (when church began). I reasoned (okay, hoped against hope) that MAYBE he would be more willing to give me a couple of hours off, if I worked a few hours first.

Later that morning as I nosed my airplane back towards the airport, I knew that show-time had arrived and I either had to ask for time off or take the coward’s route – to just let it go and then tell my pastor I couldn’t get off work. Oh man, I had been so sure I should accept my pastor’s invitation and was genuinely sorry I had let it go this far. I prayed that somehow this would turn out well despite my bungling.

As I approached the airport, I could not have been prepared for what would happen next. I noticed a few
wisps of fog moving up from the river, which was about ½ mile from the airport. No big deal, I thought, as this late in the morning the fog probably wouldn’t amount to much; fog was rarely an issue, and even then only around dawn. But I had no sooner landed my airplane when the fog closed in so thick that there was no way we could fly. I was still processing this when my boss stunned me by telling me that I might as well go home until the fog lifted (he easily could have found work for me to do at the airport).

What could I say? This was no coincidence. The timing was too perfect. This was a very personal response from God to my desperate prayers, and a rescue from my mishandling of this situation. I raced home, changed clothes, and made it to church just in time. Interestingly, the fog stayed during the entire church service! After church, the fog lifted and I was flying again by early afternoon. I don’t think I ever told my boss about any of this.

Slipping the surly bonds of Earth in my Piper Cub!

Now, more than 30 years later, I clearly remember the events of that morning. In my heart, I know I experienced a miracle - a small one, perhaps, but a miracle, nonetheless. Through it I learned something about God’s wonderful nature and was drawn closer to him.

Perhaps this seems a small deal. And it may beg the question of why other prayers seemingly go unanswered – big prayers; life and death prayers. I don’t have all the answers but I believe the Apostle Paul was speaking to this when he said: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7). These verses instruct us to thank God even before we know the outcome of our prayers; that we are not to be anxious but to trust that no matter how he answers, he is good and will give us a supernatural peace.

God may not always send a “fog” to rescue me from difficult situations, but I am slowly learning that he is always near, he is in control, and I can trust him in any situation.

Let Mercy Come

"So let mercy come
And wash away
What I’ve done"
                    Linkin Park

Regrets
The 2007 song by Linkin Park, "What I've Done", is another example of how popular music reflects a broken humanity (listen below or click the following link to listen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8sgycukafqQ). This song stunningly describes a desperate need that, although not acknowledged in the song, is answered directly by Christianity. (1)

 

Who among us doesn't have regrets for things we've done? The thing is, how do we cope with them? Especially if they have resulted in shame, anxiety, depression, despair, hopelessness, etc. 
Haunted by the Past
Many years ago I watched a PBS special about a man who had served in the Chinese Army during the Cultural Revolution. As a young soldier he was impressionable and wanted to please his "superiors" (commanding officers); perhaps he also feared what would happen to him if he didn't carry out their orders. Although he inherently knew it was wrong, he apparently had executed and possibly even tortured people. Now, many years later, the horrific images of what he had done were tormenting him. No matter what he tried, he couldn't shake the regrets of the past, and his life was shattered. 

Forgive Myself
The song by Linkin Park takes a stab at what we should do:

"I'll face myself
To cross out what I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what I’ve done
I start again
And whatever pain may come
Today this ends
I’m forgiving what I’ve done!!!"

The song acknowledges that "sins" from the past must be faced and dealt with. But consider this statement from a person trying to cope with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)(2).

"I was wrong, even though it's over.....the shame.....it is so deep, so embedded. ...[nothing] will ever change the fact that I did it. Oh geeze, why would I go against my most fundamental beliefs? How can I ever forgive myself? How can I live with myself? As hard as I work at overcoming.......that shame will never disappear."

Pain doesn't have to come from PTSD to make forgiveness of oneself impossible. Consider this excerpt from another, older popular song (Careless Whispers, by George Michaels) about regret from being unfaithful to a lover:

Time can never mend
Guilty feelings...
Though it's easy to pretend
And to the heart and mind,
Ignorance is kind.
There's no comfort in the truth,
Pain is the home you'll find.

I applaud Linkin Park for recognizing a deep-seated need in the human soul to be forgiven, to cleanse ourselves from the "sins" of our past. But their solution, while on the right track, falls very short. Simply trying to forgive myself by the power of my own will may the best our post-modern, secular world has to offer, but true forgiveness requires much more. Hear how an old saint describes what typically happens when we try to accomplish something like this by using our own strength:

What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise...I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it...My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? (3) 

He Took the Punishment that Made Us Whole
We are entering Passion Week, depicting the entrance of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem and his subsequent torture, crucifixion, and resurrection from the dead. The events of that week are powerfully described in chapters 18-20 of the book of John; I urge you to read it!

But to make a long story short, the cost of our forgiveness is high, much greater than we can muster through our own strength. Receiving forgiveness requires a power from beyond ourselves. That is why the crucifixion of Christ is so crucial to Christianity, because it represents true payment and the ONLY way to find relief from and forgiveness for our sins. Seven hundred years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah foretold what would be accomplished by Jesus on the cross:

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted. 
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all. (4)

We are promised that if we accept his sacrifice on our behalf, we are no longer condemned; we are forgiven! That is what the blood of Christ accomplished, and it is the only form of forgiveness that can give you real peace. Here is how it is described:

With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. (5)

If you feel the need for forgiveness, it is available to you. Why not accept the only forgiveness that is genuine, deep, healing, and everlasting? 

Footnotes:

Something to Believe In

Popular music is filled with lamenting over a brokenness, an emptiness in humanity that we all feel. The Good News of the Gospel speaks directly to that very real dilemma.

Tattoo of a cross on the arm of
Bret Michaels', lead vocalist of

the rock band "Poison".

The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me
    because God anointed me.
He sent me to preach good news to the poor,
    heal the heartbroken,
Announce freedom to all captives,
    pardon all prisoners.  Isaiah 61:1

Pain in our post-modern culture 
I was working out in the (newly expanded) Kansas State Recreation Center recently and heard blaring over the speakers an old song by the band Poison from the early 90's called Something to Believe In. The song resonates with something that runs deep in all of us. Namely, that we need something beyond and bigger than ourselves to anchor us, to hold onto. We need it at all times, but especially when storms of life come, such as through the death of a friend or family member or even when we become disillusioned by the widespread pain, corruption, hypocrisy, etc. in the world around us.

I always liked the song, so I looked it up online and listened to it on YouTube (listen below if you like). As I listened, I read some of the comments posted about the song. Here is a sample:

"Listened to this song after I got fired from a job I was at for 8 years. I was just having a lot of problems...I felt I lost everything that I held close to my heart."

"Sitting here and i am lonely, but hopefully there is someone who loves me or is thinking about me.."

"This song hit me like a ton of rocks. I'm always hiding behind a cloak of icy coldness and trying to act tough and be accepted. But inside, I'm just a lonely dude who has few friends...Girls won't even give me the time of day, or so it seems. Like I said, I'm just another lonely soul."

That last comment reminded me of another comment written in 2007 by Brad Delp, who was the lead singer in one of my favorite 1970's bands Boston. Delps wrote in a note: "I am a lonely soul", and then he committed suicide.

Clearly there is something written into our DNA that causes us to yearn for something meaningful and deeply personal in our lives.

Something - Anything, or Something True to Believe In?

Speaking for myself, I need something that is true, substantive, and that speaks to the deep, gnawing questions that wake me in the middle of the night. I have written elsewhere in this blog about why I believe faith in Jesus Christ meets all of these criteria and thus, provides true hope that is "an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." (1) (2)

Consider the things Jesus told us:

"If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me" (John 7:37-38)

"...surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)


Also, consider these excerpts from God's Word that have comforted me during troubled times:

"God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging." (Psalms 46:1-3)


The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
    He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
    he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
    for his name’s sake.
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. (Psalms 23:1-4)

For Those Familiar with the Song Mentioned

If you are familiar with the song Something to Believe In, it raises questions about the dishonesty of some preachers, the problem of pain in our world, and even the striking disparity between the very poor and the very rich in our world. All fodder for rich discussion, perhaps in future posts if you are interested. It is helpful for me to realize that the folks who gave Jesus the most trouble were the religious leaders of his day. I implore you not to reject Jesus and all he offers simply because you may have encountered unjust preachers or perhaps self-righteous, hypocritical "Christians" who claim to represent Jesus. Take an honest look at the man himself, consider the words he said and the life he lived, and decide for yourself.

Jesus IS the real deal and he loves us all. He is the answer to loneliness, meaninglessness, hopelessness, and all other maladies of our human condition.


Footnotes:

Les Miserables - Life Killed the Dream I Dreamed

“If I speak with the tongues of men and angels but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” I Corinthians 13:1.

Me, Go to a Musical?

They say music is the language of men and angels.

I was skeptical as I went to the see the movie Les Miserables, because I am not a big fan of musicals. I had seen the 1998, non-musical version of Les Miserables starring Liam Neeson, which was very good. Perhaps viewing that version helped me to follow the musical version now showing at the theaters; I don't know. But the bottom line was that I was not prepared for how much this movie would move me. It literally brought me to tears not once, but many times through the movie (watch trailer below or click here).

Hope and Joy  This movie powerfully brings you through themes of tragedy and destitution, merciless legalism and self righteousness, mercy and redemption, and freedom, love, and self-sacrifice. There is a scene where Ann Hathaway, at the depths of despair, sings a beautiful but heart-wrenching song that concludes:  I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living...Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

But there was one man, Jean Valjean, who intervened in her world. I'm not going to go through a step-by-step review of the movie. But one thing this movie caused in me was self examination. How do I respond to people? Do I judge them based on outward appearance? Do I love them, especially if it requires involvement and self-sacrifice? I wish I could say I have always acted in love. But as is so elegantly demonstrated in this movie, there is hope. Any of us can change...we can be redeemed and transformed. Indeed, the lives of others may count on it. For you never know when you may be the only person who can make a difference in in someone else's life.(1)

I highly recommend that you see this movie. With a great cast (Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, and Amanda Seyfried), great cinematography, and most of all a great message, its a pretty sure bet you won't be disappointed. Footnotes: