WORDS FROM W.W. October 16, 2013
He pulled up in a pick-up that looked like it had been through a few battles. I welcomed him into the house and showed him where the main TV was located. He had lazy eyes, kind of like the Robert Barone character on Everybody Loves Raymond, and a slightly covered tattoo on his right upper arm.
We conversed for a little bit and then I left the room to put the laundry in the washing machine. When I came back we started talking again and he asked me what my occupation was.
“I pastor a church.”
“Oh, really! Which one?”
“Highland Park Baptist Church, corner of Maizeland and Circle.”
“I was baptized when I was a baby back in Boston.” I assumed it was a Catholic church, but from the tone of his voice I don’t think he really knew. “I’ve probably only been in a church four times in my life. Once for my grandfather’s funeral, and a wedding, and once I went with a friend of mine to his church in Denver some place.”
“How was that?”
“I don’t really remember. He invited me to go with him so I did. That’s it!”
I searched for something to say, but nothing rose to the surface. Sometimes the work of the Holy Spirit is to keep us from having a nice quick response.
“I don’t know about God…or a higher power…or whatever you might call him. I don’t really buy into it. I’ve got too many questions that don’t seem to have answers. Like…why would God allow catastrophes to happen? Or why are there so many different kinds of churches? Why not just one church? Why does one person believe one thing and another person believes something completely different?”
“Those are all good questions.”
“I’ve never really read the Bible. Not really my thing.”
“It’s got some good things to say.”
“Probably. I believe that we’re here, but I’m not sure we have a purpose. What if we’re just one of many planets in the universe that are inhabited? What does that say about us?”
“I’m not sure.”
“So…you’re like the priest?”
“Something like that.”
“That’s cool! Do you…like, have mass on a certain day?”
“Yes, on Sundays, but we’ve got other things that go on during the week. Monday is my day off.”
“So…where did God come from?”
How do I answer that?
“I guess you could say that God didn’t come from anywhere or anyone, because he is God. He’s always been and will be.”
“I guess that’s hard for me to understand. I need scientific evidence. It just seems too vague, too foggy.”
“I guess some things just require faith. I’ll always have doubts, but I trust that God knows what he is doing and plans to do.”
“My doubt trumps my faith.”
“There’s a verse in the Bible where the followers of Jesus met him AFTER he had been resurrected from the dead and it says “they worshiped him, but some doubted.”
For me, that tells me that doubt is part of the faith journey.”
“I hear what you’re saying, but I’m just not there. And, quite honestly, I have my doubts over a story about someone being brought back from the dead. Sounds too much like a Hollywood hero-movie ending.”
We talked for a while more. It was thought-provoking and challenging. Here was someone who had experienced a lot of uncertainty in his life, but a journey with Jesus was just a little bit too much of a reach for him. It made me think about the challenges of communicating Truth to a generation that does not know the Bible, or value the Bible. It echoed in my spirit about the hesitancy of faith. Doubt is the easier road to take.
Perhaps my willingness to talk brought a little light to the situation for him. I didn’t try to convince him that he was wrong and I was right, but I listened and responded as best I could.
Sometimes questions don’t need to be answered. They just need to be heard. That day our new cable got installed and God had me listen.
Words from WW Blog 