Until his death in 2015, I’d never heard of Mike O’Brien. You probably hadn’t either. But something he wrote sure grabbed my attention. This is the start of a story about O’Brien in the Calgary Herald:
In his final blog posting, Mike O’Brien said he exuded faith — faith in his radiologist, surgeons, nurses, pharmacists and counsellors — but not in God.
“Of course, I may be wrong. I often am. Fortunately, if God really exists, I’m confident he’ll look at my overall record and let me slide on the faith/skeptic issue. It just sounds like the kind of decent thing he’d do,” he wrote.
I need to satisfy your curiosity before going any further. O’Brien, who died of cancer at age 51, warranted a newspaper article because of his roles in several Canadian TV series, including the comedy cult favourite Corner Gas.
So, what about Mike’s blog post?
I can certainly understand why a hideous disease like cancer might turn a person into an atheist. A life-threatening condition tends to drive the victim into the arms of God or into the arms of…well, nothing, I guess.
The thing is, Mike exuded faith in an entire team of people. And, sadly, all those people could not stop what was happening to him.
Meanwhile, Mike ignored his creator. Now, considering what happened to him, you might say “well, what good did Mike’s creator do for him? He died of cancer!”
On the surface, I get that. But hang on; what if relieving Mike of his four-year painful struggle meant bringing him home? That might not be what his loved ones wanted, but do we hugely imperfect humans always know what’s best?
Sadly, I’m not sure the story goes like I just put it. I’m glad Mike left this world confident that if there’s a creator, that creator would “look at my overall record and let me slide on the faith/skeptic issue”.
But where on earth would such confidence come from? How does Mike, or anyone else on this planet, know how their overall record really looks?
The God that many people believe in is active in this world. He created us to have a relationship with Him – now and for all eternity. We messed that up by going our own way and, so often, doing what Mike did: claim He doesn’t even exist and this planet – heck this universe – somehow came from nowhere.
To repair that broken relationship, God has done far more than what Mike might call the “decent thing”; He offers us a gift: Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is God’s Son.
Jesus lived an extraordinary life, offered love and forgiveness to folks you and I wouldn’t turn our head to glance at, then died to make up for all the wrong things we’ve done and all the right things we’ve failed to do. To finish it off, he came back to life after three days, showing God’s power to do whatever God wants.
All we have to do is accept the gift of Jesus. Then we can have more than Mike’s vague optimism. We can have complete confidence that when this life ends, God will absolutely overlook our many, many shortcomings and welcome us into His presence forever.
Interested? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
Frank's Cottage 
And as Mike did not believe in your god, what does your religion prescribe his fate will be?
Thanks for your comment.
1. I don’t have a ‘religion’ and never want to have one.
2. Mike would come before God and have to answer for and justify all the wrong things he did and all the right things he failed to do.
Yes, one of your stock phrases, Frank.
But you didn’t answer the question, now did you?
So, notwithstanding that Jesus built his ‘church’ on Peter, and non religion aside, what fate does your god proscribe for non -believers and what do you, a follower of Jesus who serious christians believe is the Son of God, tell people or believe will happen to them if they do not follow the character Jesus of Nazareth?
I tell them when they’re finished with this life, they’ll have to answer for and attempt to justify all the wrong things they’ve done and all the right things they’ve failed to do. They’ll have to do that before their creator.
So you don’t believe that non-believers go to ‘hell’ , Frank?
I’ve already stated what serious believers know will happen to people who don’t believe in and follow Jesus of Nazareth.
And just what will happen? Just for the record.
If they can’t adequately answer and justify the wrong things they’ve done and the right things they’ve failed to do, they’ll be separated from God, forever.
And what do you understand by the term ”seperated from god”
No contact with Him, with Jesus, with anyone who is in Heaven.
And where do such people ‘reside’ for eternity after death do you believe?
Call it hell, call it zorroland, call it beelzabub country. Call it anything you like. It’s separated from God, from Jesus, from everyone in Heaven.
What a heart-breaking story. Why wait to find out whether God is real and how He is going to judge us when He is waiting for us to seek Him now!
Indeed, Brook. In fact, Jesus is seeking us! 🙂
Is he? How do you know?
In a section of the Bible called ‘Revelation’, Jesus says “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you. And you will eat with me.”
I know what Revelation is Frank, no need to be so pedantic. I have actually read the bible more than once cover to cover. A feat not too many Christians bother with.
And who exactly wrote this, by the way ? Do you know?
All my essays and comments are written for people who have little knowledge of the Bible. They’re not written for atheists. I don’t know who wrote Revelation.
So then how do you know Jesus said anything?
I trust the Bible long, long before I trust anything from people who are opposed to Jesus of Nazareth.
That I am an atheist is irrelevant to the question.
I simply asked how you know Jesus said these words.
So, how do you know?
I’ve already answered your question. I’m puzzled as to why you are here. The Welcome page for Frank’s Cottage states the site is meant for people who are open to spirituality. By definition, atheists are not. So why are you here? Please enlighten me.
I read a lot of Jesus orientated/Christian /religious type blogs and like to help the blog hosts by correcting their mistakes.
How selfless of you.
I am more interested in those that come across such blogs and wonder what is going.
The more awakened people are the less religion there will be in the world. And it has to start somewhere, so it might as well be on the internet.
Yes, the less “religion” in the world, the better. I’m glad we agree on this very important point. 🙂
YES, you are right, Frank. Jesus wants us to follow his direction. i appreciate His will to do me good more and more every day, it seems.
Érdekes a hozzá szólásokat olvasni!
“painfully human…” Yes. that’s us. Lovely article today, Frank.