Our Cigarette-Smoking Angel

"Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels."           Hebrews 13:2 

Santiago, Chile!

Sweeping view of Santiago from Cerro San Cristobal, a huge park in the city.

"I can't believe we're lost already!", I told Steve (1) as we drove through the streets of Santiago. We had left our hotel only minutes ago and almost immediately got lost. Our plan was to drive north to the Portillo ski resort high in the Andes mountains near the Argentina border, and then drive west across the country to the coast by nightfall. But it was already mid-morning and we could feel precious minutes ticking away. Suddenly my spirits lifted as I saw come into view...a Starbucks coffee house! True, this wouldn't necessarily help us find our way, but we both loved coffee and we reasoned we could study the map whilst sipping on fine coffee and finding our way back on track.

Our First "Angel"
As we hurriedly studied our map at Starbucks, it wasn't immediately clear which way to go. Finally, Steve asked a fellow coffee drinker for help. After hearing our plan, this gentleman grabbed a pen and started scratching a map on a napkin. "You can get there faster if you take the bypass north out of Santiago. It will cost you a little but it's worth it."

The road north out of Santiago. The beautiful Andes mountains were on the
horizon and traffic was light.

In a short while we were on our way. There was very little traffic on the bypass and we made good time. "Maybe this will help us make up lost time", Steve said as we motored through the beautiful Chilean countryside towards Los Andes. "I hope so", I sighed, trying not to think that by now it was late morning and we still had a long way to go.

We made it to Los Andes without a hitch, but as we approached our intersection where we were to turn towards Portillo we ran into road construction. Unfortunately a detour took us off the main road in the opposite direction we needed to go. We soon realized we had no idea how to get to the road we needed. We tried to ask the construction workers directing traffic how to get to our road, but with little success. Steve knew a little Spanish, and I knew even less. They seemed amused at our attempts to communicate and I couldn't tell if they really couldn't understand us or if they didn't want to.

Road construction on the way to Portillo. Lots of big trucks, and progress was
slow. The scenery was spectacular though!

Here we were nearing Portillo. In the distance is a series of switchbacks in the
road, which made for harrowing driving because the snow made the roads
slick.

Our Second Angel
"Great, we're lost again. This is beginning to feel too familiar!" I said. "Pull over here and I'll ask someone for directions", Steve directed as we approached a gas station. He exited the car and went to a couple of motorists before one seemed willing to speak with him. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but soon Steve came back to the car and said to follow the guy to the next intersection, where he would turn left but we were to turn right. "Are you sure he understood you?" I asked as we pulled out of the station behind our new guide. "I think so", Steve answered as we came to a halt again behind a long line of stalled traffic due to the road construction. "He didn't know any English, but seemed happy to help us". Our progress was slow as we inched our car along, and after what seemed like an hour (but was probably only 20 minutes), we saw we were approaching an intersection. "Do you suppose this is our intersection?", I asked? "Apparently so!" Steve answered as he noted our guide was holding his arm high out of his window and gesturing towards the right. Relieved, we both waved back heartily in gratitude and turned right towards Portillo.

Steve Keeley at the Portillo ski resort high in the Andes mountains.

Portillo At Last!
Traffic was heavy and there was a considerable amount of road construction along the way to Portillo, but the drive was beautiful. It turned much colder and began to snow as we climbed higher and higher. Soon we saw what looked like a military checkpoint along the road, with a tunnel through a mountain just beyond. We soon realized we had missed the ski area and had apparently arrived at the Argentina border. We pondered driving through the tunnel just to say we had been in Argentina, but the military presence made us a little uncertain, and we were running late, too, so we turned around before we got to the checkpoint and headed back to the ski area. We were a little concerned they might get suspicious and try to pursue us, but that didn't happen (phew!).

The Aconcagua Valley is an important wine-growing valley in Chile; here we
are driving past a vineyard with stunning mountain scenery in the background.
I wish we would have had time to stop and enjoy it!

Rising Apprehension
Traffic was also heavy and slow going back down, and it was late by the time we got to the Aconcagua Valley, just west of San Felipe. "Maybe we should find a place to stay around here", I said as the sun sank towards the horizon, "It will probably be well past dark by the time we get to the coast, and finding a hotel then may be difficult"; we hadn't reserved a room anywhere. But as the miles passed, we didn't see anything resembling a motel, hotel, or bed and breakfast. We even detoured into the town of Catemu (I think), but didn't see anything we felt comfortable with.

As we left the town and pulled back onto the main road, my mind started racing about our options...could we find our way in the dark to Con Con, our destination on the coast? What would we do if we couldn't find a hotel? I knew there was a Radisson Hotel there, but we had no way of knowing if it had any rooms or even if we could find it. Would we have to sleep in the car that night? If so, how could we find a safe place? Steve was probably thinking the same things but neither of us really wanted to talk about it. We were still holding out hope.

Do We Have a Prayer?
But hope soon vanished as we came upon more road construction and a long line of stalled traffic. Tired, hungry, and discouraged, I finally breached the silence and asked Steve what he thought about our situation. As we talked, it dawned on us to pray. PRAY!! Steve and I are both Christians, and we were surprised we hadn't thought of praying about this before now. So we prayed. We asked Jesus to help us find our way to Con Con, that he would help us find a place to stay, even a nice hotel to stay in. Even as we prayed I was fearful we would end up sleeping in the car somewhere. I mean, clearly we deserved it, right? Since we didn't plan better. Oh me of little faith.

Our Third (Cigarette-Smoking) Angel
When we finished praying, we noticed the driver of a small tour bus directly in front of us get out to smoke a cigarette. Written across the back of the bus was "Con Con", which seemed almost to taunt us. We sat there for a few moments when Steve suddenly jumped out of the car and ran over to the bus driver. I was surprised by Steve's sudden exit from the car and wondered what he was up to. But he soon returned to our car and said "The bus driver is going to Con Con and said we could follow him". I was skeptical about whether we could keep up with or not get separated from him since it would be dark soon, but decided we had nothing to lose. Soon the traffic started moving and we followed him. At first it was easy to keep up with him. But then we entered a series of turns that ended at a toll booth. As we stopped to pay the toll, I could see the taillights of bus start to fade into the distance.

One of the few pictures we shot of the cigarette-smoking angel's bus.
Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of him!

"Dang, I really don't know where we are Steve. I have no idea how to get to Con Con from here". But Steve was pointing ahead and shouted "Look! He's waiting for us and is flashing his hazards so we know it is him!" Sure enough, the driver had slowed for us, and then continued to take great pains to make sure we stayed behind him, flashing his hazard lights and using his turn signals to alert us well before exits or turns were approaching. As we drove, Steve said "I think there is something going on here. I think the Lord is answering our prayer". It was then he told me that while we were stalled in construction, he had felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to go ask the bus driver for directions to Con Con. At first he (Steve) had resisted the Spirit's promptings, but then relented and went over to ask the bus driver. As he said this my spirits started rising, although I knew we weren't out of the woods yet.

Our cigarette-smoking angel was the antithesis of the cigarette
smoking man, who was the main villian on the X Files TV
series.

Con Con
I could tell from the road signs that we were approaching Con Con. Traffic was heavy on the four lane road we were traveling when, amazingly, the driver pulled over to the shoulder, jumped out of the bus, and came back to make sure we understood this was the Con Con exit. We thanked him profusely and tried to give him money as an expression of gratitude. At first he refused to take any money, but finally relented after we insisted. I was so thankful for that man's help that I could have hugged him! We called him our cigarette-smoking angel, and realized that following him gave us tremendous assurance we were going in the right direction.

Sleep in the Car After All?
By then it was pitch dark, and as we drove towards Con Con we knew we still didn't have a place to stay. After what had just happened, we agreed we should pray. So again we asked God to lead us to a safe, even nice hotel. I even uttered "the Radisson Hotel" under my breath. I knew it seemed almost selfish to request that, and maybe somewhere in my mind I felt God may expect us to sleep in the car or somewhere else uncomfortable. Suddenly Steve said "There's the Radisson, right there!" I almost couldn't believe my ears, but I could see he was correct...it was directly alongside the road we were traveling! So we pulled in to see if they had any rooms.

Me standing by the window of our hotel room with the mighty
Pacific Ocean just outside the window.

Extravagantly Answered Prayers
The clerk behind the counter was friendly, but told us that this was a busy time of the year, and especially on weekends. Since this was a Friday night, my apprehension began to rise again. Gosh, I thought, after after all of this we still might end up sleeping in the car. "This must be your lucky night", he said as he checked the roster, "we have one more room left."

The view outside our second-story window. I could have jumped directly
into the ocean, it was that close!

"I'll take it!", I exclaimed almost before he had finished speaking. Relief began to flood over me, and already I was thanking God for his provision. But God wasn't finished answering our prayers yet. While the clerk was preparing the paperwork, Steve had wandered over to the window and came back to report that the ocean was right outside the hotel. Cool, I thought momentarily before the clerk spoke again. "The room is on the ocean side". Double cool. But all I could really think about was hauling our baggage up to the room and go find something to eat. We were both famished after the day's adventures. It wasn't until we got up to the room that we realized the hotel was indeed right beside the ocean, and the windows could be opened to see the ocean, hear the surf, and smell the salt air! This wasn't a small answer to our prayer, but an extravagant answer.

My love note to my wife from the southern hemisphere.

...oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him...! Ephesians 1:19


We headed back out and soon found a nice seafood restaurant right beside the ocean, with a beautiful view, friendly waiters, good food, and even a local resident playing the restaurant's piano. His music wasn't professional but it sounded beautiful to us! After calling our wives back in the States to assure them we were okay, we headed back to the hotel. It was an incredible ending to an incredible day.

Epilogue
We left the window cracked open all night so we could hear the surf. In the middle of the night I got up and stood gazing for awhile out the open window. The southern stars were blazing, and a crescent moon was setting over the Pacific Ocean. I could sense God's presence and I praised him for his amazing creation, answered prayers, and the many "angels" he had sent to help us that day.

Footnotes:

Visiting Ireland: The Emerald Isle

"...the Irish saved civilization."       Thomas Cahill

"If I have any worth, it is to live my life for God so as to teach these peoples; even though some of them still look down on me."

                                                         Saint Patrick, 5th century

After reading Thomas Cahill's fascinating book "How the Irish Saved Civilization", I was excited to visit Ireland. In Cahill's book I was surprised to learn that St. Patrick, who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, was not Irish. Rather, as a teenager he was kidnapped by marauding Irish raiders and forced into slavery as a shepherd in remote Ireland where he was bitterly isolated and spent months at a time alone in the hills. It was during that time that Patrick began seeking a relationship with his heavenly Father.

Six years later Patrick escaped his captors, which is an amazing story in itself. However, despite his harsh treatment and the fact that the Irish of his day (fifth century) were violent, pagan, and barbaric, and human sacrifice was commonplace, Patrick felt God's call to return to Ireland as a missionary. He wrote: "I am ready to be murdered, betrayed, enslaved -- whatever may come my way."

Cahill's book is more than about Patrick only. It is a brief history of the dark ages, after Rome fell and the barbarians ransacked the European continent...and learning, scholarship, and culture nearly disappeared. However, the monks and scribes of Patrick's unconquered Ireland preserved the West's written treasury, from the Greek and Roman classics to Jewish and Christian works, which would have otherwise been lost. With the return of stability to Europe, these Irish scholars moved into the continent, evangelizing and bringing learning wherever they went. An amazing story and worth a read!

Recently (mid to late August) I visited Ireland with my family, to attend a destination wedding of my step-daughter Sarah and my new son-in-law, Colin. Below are a few photos of the beautiful land and its beautiful and friendly people. Enjoy!

The Cliffs of Moher, rising more than 700 ft. above the ocean, south of Doolin.

You can't visit Ireland without visiting a pub! We grabbed lunch at a famous Doolin pub and it was a great experience!

A beautiful view of a valley on the Ring of Kerry near sunset, northeast of Sneem.

My family (left to right) Colin, me, Jannis, Josh, Lindsey, Sarah, and Erin, at Ross Castle in Killarney National Park.

Josh in Killarney on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in August!

Fuchsia (fuchsia magellacina) flower, known in in Gaelic as ´Deora De´ ( the tears of God). This flower was common along roadsides in County Kerry.

Skelling Michael (right) and Little Skellig (left) islands. This was one of the highlights of our trip! Little Skelling is home to 70,000 Gannets, making it the 2nd largest colony of that bird species in the world; the white on Little Skelling is guano. Skelling Michael is home to a Christian monastery established sometime between the 6th and 8th century and abandoned in the 12th century. The sea was rough on our boat ride out, and several of our group got sick!

More than 600 harrowing steps lead to the monastery, which sits at more than 600 feet above sea level. A misstep during this climb (or descent) could easily lead to serious injury or death. There were no guard rails!

The groom, Colin Smith, giving a friendly wave outside one of the "beehive cells", where the monks resided. The stones are laid with no mortar and yet they still shed water after ~1500 years!

A view of Little Skelling Island from a window in one of the oratories on Skelling Michael.

Driving in Ireland is not for the faint of heart! The roads are narrow and car insurance is high...most credit cards won't cover rental car insurance in Ireland. In fairness, this scene may be a bit extreme even for Ireland. It was on the north side of Conor Pass on the Dingle Peninsula. Note that driving is on the left side of the road, which takes some adjustment!

My daughter Erin poses beside an "erin" gift store in Sneem, Ireland. Erin is a Gaelic word for Ireland.

Panoramic view of a ring stone fort, Cahergall, near Cahersiveen, on the north side of the Ring of Kerry.

Jannis and me giving a friendly wave to our group, who were up on the wall of Cahergall stone fort.
(Photo courtesy of Lindsey Myers)

My daughter Erin and me at a beach on the west side of the Dingle peninsula.

Beautiful and typical view of the western Irish countryside, here on Valentia Island.

Jannis emerging from our abode, Westcove Farmhouse. We had our own private courtyard!

A view of the cove out of our bedroom window. We could hear sheep and a resident goose every morning and evening!

The bride and groom, Sarah and Colin at their wedding on a beautiful Irish afternoon (August 19, 2014). Sister Lindsey stands to the left. I had the honor of officiating their ceremony! (Photo courtesy of Allison Gerli)

The sun shines through an opening in the tower of Ballinskelligs Priory, where the monks settled after abandoning the monastery at Skelling Michael Island. Although the priory is in ruins I was encouraged by words from the prophet Isaiah:  "For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland." Isaiah 43:19. God isn't finished with Ireland or any of the world. The world needs more "St. Patricks" through which God will move to change the nations. Who knows, maybe God is calling you!

Resurrection from the Dead

“Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here...‘He has risen from the dead...”
                                                                                ―Matthew 28:5-7

“The resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christianity stand or fall together”
                                                                                ― Professor Josh McDowell

As a child my family attended church at sunrise nearly every Easter Sunday. Although I didn't like getting up early when it was still dark, over the years the significance of the Easter message began to 'dawn' on me. Namely, that this God-man named Jesus conquered death, returned to life from the grave, and promised us that we too could have this hope. (1) (see 1.3 min youtube scene of the resurrection from "The Passion of the Christ" at left, or click here). But can this really be true? If it is, it changes everything.

Literal Resurrection?
Many modern people have trouble believing in this aspect of Christian teaching. One objection is that the early Christians were a primitive, pre-scientific people who were ignorant of the laws of nature and therefore, more prone to believe in miracles. However, a physician named Luke wrote two books of the Bible that included an account of the resurrection. Luke was trained in the medical science of his day, and wrote that the first objections to the resurrection came not from atheists, but from Sadducee high priests in Judaism. These were highly religious men who believed in God, but they had embraced a worldview that did not allow for the resurrection of the dead. Indeed, theirs was a widespread conviction. Historian Tom Wright explained: "Ancient paganism contains all kinds of theories, but whenever resurrection is mentioned, the answer is a firm negative: we know that it doesn't happen." Therefore, the ancient world knew as well as we do that dead bodies do not get up out of graves. Christianity won its way because of the sheer weight of evidence that one man had actually risen from the dead. (2,3) 

A second objection is that today we know the laws of nature and therefore, we also know that miracles are impossible. However, as Oxford mathematician John Lennox explained: "It is important to grasp that Christians do not deny the laws of nature...The scientific use of the word 'law' is not the same as the legal use, where we often think of a law as constraining someone's actions...Newton's Law of Gravitation tells me that if I drop an apple it will fall towards the centre of the earth. But that law does not prevent someone intervening, and catching the apple as it descends. In other words, the law predicts what will happen, provided there is no change in the conditions under which the experiment is conducted. Thus, from the theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene. To argue that the laws of nature make it impossible for us to believe in the existence of God, and in the possibility of his intervention in the universe, is plainly fallacious. It would be like claiming that understanding of the laws governing the behaviour of internal combustion engines makes it impossible to believe that the designer of a motor car, or one of his mechanics, could or would intervene to remove the cylinder head. Of course they could intervene. Moreover, this intervention would not destroy those laws. The very same laws that explained why the engine worked with the cylinder head on would now explain why it did not work with the head removed...When a miracle takes place, it is our knowledge of the laws of nature that alerts us to the fact that it is a miracle." (2)

The Explosion of the Early Church
Clearly the resurrection or any event in history cannot be proven in a scientific laboratory. However, the resurrection of Jesus is a historical fact much more fully attested to than most other events of ancient history that we take for granted. The explosive growth of the early church was centered around the resurrection, and was striking evidence that it (the resurrection) happened. (2,3,4) (listen to NT Wright on youtube at right, or click here).

From the beginning the early church had a resurrection-centered view of reality. For example, one of the first accounts of the empty tomb and eyewitnesses was recorded by Paul only 15 to 20 years (possibly as little as 5 years) after the death of Jesus: 

"I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died."
1 Corinthians 15:3-6. 

It is also noteworthy that nearly all of the apostles and early Christian leaders died for their faith. It is hard to believe that this kind of powerful self-sacrifice would be done to support a hoax. As Pascal put it "I [believe] those witnesses who get their throats cut." Consequently, as stated by Tim Keller: "Most people think that, when it comes to Jesus' resurrection, the burden of proof is on believers to give evidence that it happened. That is not completely the case. It is not enough to simply believe Jesus did not rise from the dead. You must then come up with a historically feasible alternate explanation for the birth of the church." (4) 

Mary at the Empty Tomb, a stained glass
reproduction of a painting by German artist Bernhard
Plockhorst (1825-1907).

The Resurrection and You
At the age of 50, Leo Tolstoy faced an inward crisis and asked the question lying in the soul of every person, a question that brought him to the verge of suicide. "Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?" The resurrection of Jesus Christ answers that question with a resounding yes.

Consequently, I believe the significance of the resurrection warrants your serious consideration. Namely because if it really happened, Christianity teaches that our resurrection can be guaranteed as well. As NT Wright said (in the youtube video in this post), if your worldview doesn't allow the possibility of miracles and you simply won't believe it, then this is as far as I can take you. However, if you are open to changing your worldview to believing that maybe there is a God who is involved in sorting out this sad world, then you will find the evidence overwhelming for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Personally I find enormous comfort in this belief and desire the same for everyone-including you! 

Footnotes: 

Has Science Disproved God?

"Science and religion cannot be reconciled.”
                                                             Peter Atkins

“All my studies in science… have confirmed my faith.”
                                                             Sir Ghillean Prance FRS

Wearing my new glasses!

Recently I picked up a pair of glasses for distance viewing, which for me is the first time ever. I was amazed at how sharp my vision was. The definition and clarity in road signs, trees, and buildings was astounding! It literally took me back almost 35 years to when my vision was much better!

Origins of Complex Life

I began to think about the different explanations for the existence of something as complex and functional as the human eye. A theist (one who believes in a deity) would say the eye was designed and created by God, while an atheist would say the eye emerged automatically out of matter through a mindless, unguided process. As I marveled at the sharpness of my vision, I couldn’t help but wonder whether atheism really requires more faith than theism (1). Why, if something as marvelous as vision simply emerged from the primordial soup, would vision be so sharp? Why, for example, wouldn’t it be sufficient for the eye to evolve just to the point of my present vision without glasses, which is still overall quite functional? (2) This question is similar to, although not as potentially damning as what has become known as Darwin’s Doubt. Darwin wrote:  ‘With me, the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy.’

 Mathematicians have calculated that  it is highly improbable that the eye could have evolved by numerous small mutational changes since the available time was simply not available. Even so-called new atheist Richard Dawkins, author of “The God Delusion” stated: ‘You don’t need to be a mathematician or a physicist to calculate that an eye…would take from here to infinity to self-assemble by sheer higgledy-piggledy luck.’ Dawkins’ explanation, in a nutshell, is that natural selection is a law-like process that finds a faster pathway through the space of possibilities, which will increase the probabilities to acceptable levels over geological time. There isn’t space in this post to delve into the nuts and bolts of his explanation, but Oxford mathematician Dr. John Lennox dissects it brilliantly and concludes that Dawkins’ explanation turns out to be a guided process after all (3).

Science has Disproved God?

The new atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Peter Atkins also claim that science has eliminated the justification for believing in God. As a scientist who believes in God, I resoundingly reject that claim. A poll published in Nature in the mid-1990’s revealed that about 40% of all scientists believe both in a God who answers prayer and in immortality (4). There have also been and are some very prominent scientists who do believe in God – Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project, Professor Bill Phillips, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997, and others (5). The scientist Sir John Houghton FRS wrote: ‘Our science is God’s science. He holds the responsibility for the whole scientific story… (6) This reflects the belief of many scientists.

Even the late Stephen Jay Gould, who was not a believer in God, wrote: ‘Either half my colleagues are enormously stupid, or else the science of Darwinism is fully compatible with conventional religious beliefs – and equally compatible with atheism.’ Gould also said that ‘science simply cannot (by its legitimate methods) adjudicate the issue of God’s possible existence. We neither affirm it nor deny it; we simply can’t comment on it as scientists’ (7). Prominent atheist Thomas Nagel goes even farther, criticizing the new atheists by saying their conception of nature, which is unable to account for mind-related features such as consciousness, meaning, and value, flies in the face of common sense and is almost certainly false (8).

War of the Worldviews

In his book God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? (9), Dr. John Lennox points out that, in light of some of the points made above, the real conflict isn’t between science and God at all. If that were true, the vast majority of scientists would be atheists, which simply isn’t so. No, the real conflict is between two opposing worldviews:  theism and naturalism. Naturalism is opposed to supernaturalism, and naturalism insists there can be no incursion into nature from outside of nature (such as God, angels, etc.). Therefore, naturalists have no other option than to insist that matter and energy must have the potential to organize themselves in such a way that eventually something as complex as the eye, or the human mind with its inherent hunger for meaning and purpose, will emerge.

Dr. Lennox concludes his book by noting that all of us must choose essentially between one of two presuppositions that will form the basis of our worldview. He wrote:  ‘Either human intelligence ultimately owes its origin to mindless matter; or there is a Creator.’

As I drove into my driveway after picking up my glasses, I got out of the car and looked up into the starry sky. The ‘restored’ clarity of my vision truly enhanced the beauty of the moon and stars in the night sky. As I stood there I thought of the Psalmists words: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God’ (10). And I thanked God that he gave me the ability to see with my eyes and comprehend with my mind even just a small glimpse of his glory!

Footnotes:

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: