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Posts Tagged ‘Bible’

HERE TODAY, HERE FOREVER

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , on July 20, 2012| 5 Comments »

Some days I’m simply struck by the disposable, here-today-gone-tomorrow nature of life in North America.

A cellphone manufacturer has recently been in the news; it’s in trouble because a new version of its phone won’t be ready for another six months. Meanwhile, the company’s latest phone is less than two years old.

Then I look through magazines for photographers and runners (both are passions for me). They are filled with advertisements and articles about the latest cameras and shoes.

I’m amazed at how many cameras one manufacturer can put on the market and how the entire idea is to make you feel ashamed to leave the house with that outdated two-year-old waste of materials.

Running shoes? Manufacturers “update” their product lines every six months. Sometimes, that means little more than changing the colour of the trim. Nevertheless, that’s apparently worth articles and ads to subtly tell you to get with it and swap your hideous current shoes for something that’s sure to be infinitely better.

All this makes me long for something permanent (besides death, taxes and government deficits, that is) and something that doesn’t have a ‘best before’ date.

Is it out there? Yes it is.

People like me, who follow Jesus of Nazareth (who many believe is the Son of God), get a great deal of strength and peace in this excerpt, from an ancient Jesus follower: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”

The Jesus that His followers believed in and followed a thousand years ago – because they knew He loved them enough to sacrifice himself for their wrongdoings – is not only still around, He’s still loving you, me and everyone else today.

That Jesus is still knocking at the door to our hearts, asking to come in, be our best friend, strengthen us for the hard times and show us how to be the person He wants us to be.

Looking for evidence? Consider this excerpt, from one of Jesus’ earliest followers: “God wants everyone to be saved and to fully understand the truth”.

He wanted that 2,000 years ago (when this quote was written) and, 2,000 years from now, He’ll still want it.

I don’t know about you, but I find that incredibly comforting. No matter what you’ve done (or not done), no matter how you’ve treated family members and work colleagues (or been mistreated by them), no matter what temptations you’ve given in to.

Jesus’ offer of a new life now – and an eternal life when your body gives out – still stands. No strings attached. All you have to do is hear Him knocking and open the door.

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CHURCH: A ‘DESERVEDLY INFAMOUS GROUP?’

Posted in In The News, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 16, 2012| 4 Comments »

If you like Jesus, but don’t care for the Christian church, this news item may have grabbed your attention: bestselling vampire novelist Anne Rice (1941-2021), who returned to her Roman Catholic faith in 1998, renounced Christianity in 2010, but retained her commitment to following Jesus.

Is such a thing possible? Ms Rice (best known for writing Interview With The Vampire and The Vampire Lestat) certainly thought so.

Writing on her Facebook page, Ms Rice declared, “It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

At the same time, she maintained, “My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn’t understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God, is crucial to me.”

The reaction to all this was hugely mixed. Some people are sad, others (unfortunately) declare “good riddance” and some are understanding.

I fell into the latter camp. There’s no doubt about it, Jesus followers and their churches are a motley crew who exhibit all the traits of humanity. That means we can be, and often are, petty, smug, self-righteous, self-centred, intentionally blind to our own screw-ups while judging others’ failures, quarrelsome, pessimistic, and more. You get the picture, right?

However, I’m puzzled as to why Ms. Rice found this so intolerable. I don’t believe any human being on this planet today – Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Muslim, atheist, etc. – is immune to at least some of the same shortcomings. Was she?

The Christian church is made up of gloriously imperfect people, so it’s certainly no more virtuous than many other institutions. The trouble is, there was a time when church leaders held it up as a model of morality. Even though few leaders make that mistake today, the residue of that time continues and, in the eyes of the media and militant atheists, this makes the church a safe and easy target.

There are three points that Ms. Rice, and anyone pondering a life of faith, should consider:

1.  Today’s Christian church makes a hugely positive contribution to the world in everything from providing for the poor and helping single mothers to improving their communities and supplying aid to developing nations.
In all this, today’s churches are guided by Jesus, who tells His followers to care for the needy, love their enemies and treat people the way they themselves would like to be treated. Almost every other organization that’s committed to doing good works tries to follow these guidelines, whether they know it or not.

2.  Serious followers of Jesus realize they are called to be in a church. One of Jesus’s early followers wrote something that almost seems addressed to people like Anne Rice: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.”

3.  Being part of a church, no matter how imperfect it may be, helps serious Jesus followers deepen their faith and resist some of the nasty temptations offered up by our culture, such as pornography, shop-til-you-drop lifestyles, gambling, and dog-eat-dog competitiveness.

It’s not always easy being part of a church. But for most serious Jesus followers, the go-it-alone alternative is worse. I hope Anne Rice realized this before she left this life.

So, have you walked away from attending church? If so, why? And do the three points listed above make any difference in your viewpoint?

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THE BASIC FLAW OF DOUBT

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 11, 2012| 13 Comments »

Canadian politician/author/inventor/journalist/broadcaster Charles Templeton was a mostly brilliant jack-of-all-trades. But I’ve left one “occupation” out because it’s poignant and sad and, perhaps, telling the story can help us thoughtfully consider our lives.

Templeton (1915-2001) was also a gifted evangelist who was once on par with Billy Graham–considered by many to be the world’s greatest speaker on following Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, they travelled the continent together as a team.

Templeton hosted a weekly TV show in the United States, regularly preached at massive crusades and, during the 1950s, was a towering leader in the North American church.

But Templeton also had nagging doubts about Jesus – doubts which eventually led him to become an agnostic (someone who simply doesn’t know if there is a God) and walk away from the ministry.

I used to listen to Templeton every morning on Toronto’s CKEY radio. So once I discovered his past, Templeton’s story intrigued me to the point of writing a Calgary Herald review of his 1996 book Farewell To God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith.

What that book left out was an incident from when he was struggling with his faith. Templeton had what can only be called a mystical experience, where he “saw” God and Jesus weeping for the sins, wars, and hatreds of humanity. As he wrote in another book, his anecdotal memoir:

“When I became conscious of my surroundings again, I was lying on the wet grass, convulsed by sobs. I had been outside myself and didn’t know for how long. Later, I couldn’t sleep and trembled as though with a fever at the thought that I had caught a glimpse through the veil.”

Templeton tried to repeat the experience, which is bizarre because how would one go about “creating” such an extraordinary event? When he couldn’t, Templeton researched mystical experiences until concluding they were not unusual, and in his words, “of no special significance. Mystical experience has added no insight to our knowledge of God or to Christian doctrine.”

Not unusual? Of no special significance?? People all over this planet would love to have the sort of mystical experience that was bestowed on Templeton, regardless of belief level. Indeed, Mother Teresa spent most of her adult life praying (in vain) to experience God this way. And what “authority” declared mystical experiences are irrelevant unless they add to our knowledge of God?

I find myself profoundly saddened that Templeton found ways to write off one of the most incredible moments any human being can ever pray to experience. The way I see it, God did, indeed, let him glimpse through the veil and see things most of us can never hope to see. God went out of his way for Templeton. And Templeton still walked away from a life of faith.

So what can we take away from this? In his book Your God Is Too Safe, Canadian author Mark Buchanan puts it this way: “Here lies the basic flaw of all doubt: it can never really be satisfied. No evidence is ever, fully, finally enough. Doubt wants always to consume, never to consummate.”

Before I decided to follow Jesus of Nazareth (whom many people believe is the Son of God), Buchanan’s words were a perfect description for me. At some point, I had to reconcile myself with not getting all the answers to my questions. Once I did that, the doors opened to a transformational chapter in my life – a transformation that won’t be finished until this life is done.

Can you set aside your nagging questions and trust in someone bigger than yourself? Or are you staring at the possibility of Charles Templeton’s fate? Post a comment and let me know.

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WASTING TIME WITH RELIGION

Posted in It's Not About 'Religion', tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 6, 2012| 3 Comments »

Are you as fascinated as I am with the spirituality of celebrities? In recent years, the media told us about pop singer Katy Perry not having a childhood because of her strict religious parents (they wouldn’t even let her buy non-Christian CDs), and about Brad Pitt (who grew up the son of very conservative Christian parents) saying his upbringing was stifling.

Now there’s another celebrity speaking out about faith.  Singer Brian Johnson, the 70-year-old member of AC/DC – I love his wolverine-in-heat singing style – told the website popeater.com that he doesn’t believe in religion.

“I believe all religions are bad,” he said. “I think they’re a waste of time.”

From a Christian perspective (and that was Johnson’s childhood environment), he couldn’t be more right. Religion is about rules and appearances – follow the rules and make sure you appear to have it all together. If you don’t, prepare to be criticized and ostracized.

Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is the Son of God, has no use for this kind of thinking. He told the self-righteous religious leaders of His day (those are likely the sort of people Johnson is thinking about) that they were hopeless frauds.

One of the original source documents of His life records Him telling a crowd of people, “Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they [the self-righteous religious leaders] package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads.”

In the case of Katy Perry (famous for her outlandish outfits and the hit song ‘I Kissed a Girl’), she told Vanity Fair magazine her parents wouldn’t let her say ‘deviled eggs’ or ‘dirt devil’ and the only book her mother ever read to her was the Bible.

Now this may be a case of parents fearful of losing their child to all the attractions of our superficial, often-misguided culture. But that fear caused them to go to such laughable religious extremes that Perry abandoned her faith.

These were the same kinds of extremes Jesus dealt with. His followers were collecting food during the Sabbath – a holy day of rest for serious Jews – when those obnoxious, rule-obsessed religious leaders found out and accused them of breaking Jewish law. As before, Jesus refused to knuckle under.

“The Sabbath was made to serve us; we weren’t made to serve the Sabbath,” He told them.

Notice what keeps happening? Now, as in ancient times, religion keeps getting in the way of people having a life-changing relationship with God – a relationship that ultimately guarantees us a place in Heaven with Jesus.

I’m not saying all rules are always bad; can you imagine the mayhem that would result if we tried playing hockey or soccer without rules? Those guidelines help us understand and enjoy hockey and soccer, just as the guidelines Jesus supported help us understand and enjoy a relationship with God, through Jesus.

If this makes sense, are you willing to give God (as opposed to religion) a try?

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ONE MAN’S SACRIFICE

Posted in In The News, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2012| 10 Comments »

Remember the horrible grounding of the Costa Concordia cruise ship? Among the rescue stories from the January, 2012 disaster, this one struck me.

“I owe my life to husband’s sacrifice, says survivor who was given last life jacket,” stated the newspaper headline on an article about a French woman who lived through the catastrophe.

Nicole Servel, 61, recalled how “He said to me ‘jump, jump’. And as I don’t know how to swim, he gave me his life jacket.” The body of her husband, Francis, was later found in the wreckage, one of more than 30 people who died after the boat ran aground along the Italian coast, then keeled over.

Consider these facts about Mrs. Servel’s sad, amazing story:

  1. She was in serious danger;
  2. She was incapable of escaping that danger;
  3. If someone had not come to her rescue, she would have died, and;
  4. That rescuer gave up his life for her.

Why did this hit me so hard? Because it’s the story of Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is the Son of God. Ponder these points:

1. Even though it’s not obvious to most of us, you and I are in danger – in danger of losing our eternal lives because of the wrong things we do and the right things we fail to do. Because we reject the guidance of our creator.

2. You and I are incapable of escaping that danger. Despite my efforts, I’m still selfish, conceited, uncommunicative, and reluctant to truly care for God’s people and His creation.
My struggles are shared by all humanity, no matter how “good” some of us appear to be. Even the late Mother Teresa, a shining beacon of goodness, knew she couldn’t save herself. That’s one reason she turned to God.

3. If someone doesn’t come to our rescue – to make up for the shortcomings you and I can’t fix on our own – then we’re doomed to lose our eternal place with God. That “someone” is Jesus.
Looking for evidence? Consider these words from one of the four original-source accounts of Jesus’ life: “God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him would not be lost, but have eternal life.”

4. Jesus gave up His life for me and for everyone else who wants to be rescued and is willing to follow Him. His death on a cross made up for our wrongs and His resurrection paved the way for us to have eternal life. Here’s more evidence, from one of His earliest followers: “Jesus offered one sacrifice, once and for all, when He offered Himself.”

One man’s sacrifice has let Nicole Servel continue living this life. But the sacrifice of another man can let Nicole and anyone else who believes in and follows Him have life, with God, forever. One of those people can be YOU.

What do you think? Agree or disagree, post a comment and let’s have a conversation.

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KARMA? NO THANKS

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 27, 2012| 42 Comments »

Do you believe in karma like the person who created this internet meme? Most people in our culture probably do, even if they don’t realize it. And that’s no surprise; a majority of us are brought up to understand that what we do (or don’t do) will be paid back.

In fact, I imagine many parents slip into teaching this kind of thing, if only as a desperate measure to keep little Johnny from running wild in the grocery store.

But the first thing I thought when I read that ‘billboard’ was “Yikes!” I don’t want to get what I deserve. And when it comes right down to it, I suspect you don’t, either.

Our culture may tell us we’re all OK people, but think about it:

  • Do you really give as much time/finances to charity as you should? I don’t.
  • Are you really, really committed to telling the truth? I like to think I am, but the truth is different, despite my best efforts.
  • When the name of someone you know comes up in conversation, do you jump in by revealing something negative about them? I’ve caught myself doing just that.
  • Do you fall short on doing all that you really can do for the environment? I plead guilty.
  • When you think carefully about your behaviour, do you find there are times when you’ve taken out your frustrations on others? I have.

I could go on, but I’m sure you’ve gotten the point. None of us are really as “good” as we should be. All of us regularly miss the mark on being the kind of person we could be.

So, do you want to get called on the carpet for all the bad things you’ve done – and all the good things you HAVEN’T done? I don’t. And that’s just one little reason why I decided to become follow Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is the Son of God.

Jesus followers believe this statement, found in one of the original source documents about Jesus’ life on Earth: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost, but have eternal life.”

In other words, when you believe that Jesus died to make up for all your screw-ups and when you decide to trust your life to him, there is no more karma. You no longer get what you deserve. You get way, WAY better.

In fact, not only can you get a sense of what one of Jesus’s original followers called a peace that goes beyond your ability to understand it, you also receive assurance that that when this life is over, you’ll spend eternity hanging out with Jesus.

This sounds like a fabulous offer. Do you agree? Post a comment and let’s start a conversation.

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DIDN’T THEY HAVE IT MADE?

Posted in In The News, Movies & TV, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 25, 2012| 47 Comments »

Robin Williams. Whitney Houston. Kurt Cobain. Cory Monteith. All these entertainers had one thing in common: extraordinary God-given talent.

As a result (at least in part…) of that talent, they achieved everything our culture says should lead to permanent happiness and fulfillment. They were fabulously wealthy. They had throngs of adoring fans. They earned the highest honours possible in their industries. They were hugely admired by their peers.

Our culture says they had it made. So what happened – or, more importantly, what didn’t happen – that ended their lives so early?

  • Williams, the Academy-Award winning actor (for 1997’s Good Will Hunting) and an incredible comedian, died of a suicide-related asphyxiation at age 63.
  • Monteith was one of the stars of Glee, a popular TV show in North America. He grew up with substance abuse problems and that didn’t change when Glee transformed him into an award-winning celebrity. He died in 2013 from an overdose of drugs and alcohol.
  • Cobain, singer, songwriter and guitarist with the groundbreaking, phenomenally popular grunge music band Nirvana, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1994. He was 27.
  • Houston, 48, who sold more than 170 million albums and collected 415 career awards, was found dead in her hotel room in 2012. She had a history of erratic behaviour and cocaine abuse.

Sadly, we can add more names onto this list of icons who had drug and/or alcohol problems and died early: singers Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse and Jim Morrison, plus guitar god Jimi Hendrix and Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Where was the fulfillment promised by our culture? These people should have been much, much happier than you and me. Their tragic deaths make a clear and consistent case for that promise being an empty lie.

Their wealth didn’t satisfy, their awards apparently brought only temporary happiness, and there was no fulfillment to be had in their fans or peers.

So what (or who) CAN bring real, lasting satisfaction and fulfillment? Could it be…God? Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher, certainly thought so. One of his most famous quotes says, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus [of Nazareth, who many people believe is God’s Son].”

Why is this possible? Because a life-changing relationship with God, through His son, doesn’t depend on anything our culture has to offer. Rich or poor, famous or obscure – these things mean nothing to God. In fact, a relationship with God doesn’t depend on anything in our resumes. It depends on Him.

Consider these three words from an ancient follower of Jesus: “God is love”. That fact explains why He sent Jesus to die for all the wrong things we’ve done and the right things we haven’t done.

He loves us and wants to wipe the slate clean of what some people call “sins” so there is nothing blocking the way to a satisfying, fulfilling, and eternal relationship with us. All we have to do is believe this and claim Jesus as our saviour.

Does this make sense? Agree or not, post a comment below and let’s start a conversation.

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SURRENDERING AND SURVIVING

Posted in Movies & TV, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 23, 2012| 4 Comments »

Forrest Gump, the Academy Award-winning movie, bowled me over when it first came out in 1994.

So when I encountered it while flipping channels the other night, I stopped and relived the magic of Tom Hanks portraying the slow-witted, über-innocent Forrest as he fights in Vietnam, meets presidents, runs across the United States, becomes a millionaire in the shrimp business and fathers a son with the love of his life.

More than Forrest, however, what sticks with me is his Vietnam platoon leader, Lieutenant Dan Taylor. Lieut. Dan (played by Gary Sinise) is saved in battle by Forrest, but his legs are so badly injured they must be amputated.

Dan curses Forrest for saving him and curses God for leaving him a wheelchair-bound cripple. He plunges into a life of drugs, liquor, prostitutes, and squalor.

Still, Dan can’t seem to stay away from Forrest and when Forrest goes into the shrimping business with his own boat, Dan and his wheelchair show up to join him. Their conversations are often spiritually charged, with Dan throwing out bitter barbs about God.

At one point, after their shrimp nets come up empty yet again, Dan caustically demands, “Where the hell is this God of yours?”

The answer comes moments later when a storm comes up, tossing the boat in gigantic wind-whipped waves. Where is Dan through all this? He’s hoisted himself to the top of the boat’s mast where, like Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, he has his life-defining confrontation with the beast. For Ahab, it was the great whale; for Dan, it’s God.

“You call this a storm?” he screams above the hurricane. “It’s time for a showdown – you and me! I’m right here, come and get me!!”

If you saw Forrest Gump, you might recall the boat didn’t sink. In fact, it was the only shrimping vessel in the area undamaged by the storm and, as a result, Forrest and Dan had no competition for the shrimp.

They become rich off the bountiful harvest and a later scene shows a relaxed Dan finally thanking Forrest for saving him in Vietnam. Near the movie’s end, Dan shows up at Forrest’s wedding – clean, sober, with prosthetic legs and a fiancé. He’s whole again.

What can one conclude from this? One commentator on Youtube notes “where Lt. Dan ultimately surrenders and survives, Ahab remained stubborn to the end and died in the wreck (of his whaling boat).”

This conclusion makes sense. It’s certainly a notion that resonates in my life. By finally surrendering my questions about God and Jesus, I opened the door to spiritual wholeness – a real, life-changing relationship with Jesus.

It reminds me of something I read by an ancient writer: “I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.”

Is there a point of pride or anger in your life, or the life of someone you know, that’s keeping the door closed to a relationship with God and his Son?

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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAITH AND RELIGION

Posted in It's Not About 'Religion', tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 21, 2012| 18 Comments »

ReligiousSymbolsHere’s a statement that might get you scratching your head: I’m a serious follower of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God), but I’m not into religion.

Huh? For a lot of people, religion and spirituality are the same thing. But many people of faith will tell you that’s not so.

Psychiatrist Richard Pratt sees the difference this way: “Religion is a search for peace and security in an unsure world. Spirituality is that personal urge many of us have within, to listen to an inner voice from a deep ‘something’ that is calling us from the inside out.”

There’s nothing wrong with searching for peace and security. In fact, my commitment to following Jesus provides just that. However, it’s my faith, NOT my religion.

Fine, fine, you say. But am I guilty of linguistic hair-splitting? Some might say yes, but I’ve often found that religious people can be unpleasant and “legalistic” — that is, they spend too much time making sure they and people around them are obeying rules and keeping up proper appearances. Often, these rules and appearances have nothing to do with following Jesus.

There’s no shortage of examples: earrings on guys; drinking the occasional glass of beer or wine; attending a mainstream rock concert; getting a tattoo; shopping on Sunday; smoking cigarettes or cigars; missing a church service now and then.

Granted, just about everyone knows smoking is terrible for your health, but guess what: Jesus never called it a sin. In fact, He never mentioned smoking, tattoos, earrings, mainstream music and “religiously” attending worship services are not mentioned at all. Alcohol? One of the four original-source biographies recounting the life of Jesus has Him turning water into wine at a wedding.

So where does this “religious” drive come from? Part of our desire for peace and security translates into everyone thinking and acting similarly. That makes it easy for people to see who’s “with us” and who’s not. But it seems clear to me that God didn’t make the world for me or anyone else to mindlessly brand (and by brand, I mean “judge”) others.

In fact, Jesus had an issue with this branding/judging. One of His most famous instructions is to avoid judging people because whatever standard we use in our judging, that same standard will be used against us.

Paul, an early and influential Jesus follower, wrote a powerful reminder for all people: “It’s God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between — not each other.”

I hope this means something to you, if you’ve ever been left with a bad taste after encountering a religious Jesus follower. And it’s my prayer that Paul’s reminder will stick with me, no matter who I encounter in this life.

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WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BELIEVE?

Posted in In The News, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »

How’s this for a rags-to-riches story?

When 2011 started, Ted Williams was a homeless man in Columbus, Ohio. He possessed an incredibly rich, refined announcer’s voice, but lost everything else and became a convicted felon due to drugs and alcohol.

Then a guy made a quickie video of him on the street, begging for handouts. Ted spoke on film, mimicking a radio announcer (his former career), and the guy put the video on YouTube.

Well, faster than a government runs up debt, the video went viral. It was viewed by 13 million people and, overnight, Ted Williams and his amazing voice became a star. Talk shows battled to get him on TV first, thousands of newspapers published articles on him, and job offers poured in from companies such as Kraft, MTV, and the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team.

Through it all, Williams, 53, did three things: vowed to get his life together, be a real dad to his nine children, and give credit where credit belongs.

“The difference between my successes of years gone by is that I didn’t acknowledge the Lord or thank him for anything before,” he told CBS Early Show. “This time around, I have God in my life, acknowledging him on a daily basis. I’ve found a new sense of spirituality now.”

This led USA Today to asked readers “Do you think God or a YouTube video gone viral was the key to Ted Williams’ great second chance?”

One anonymous responder declared, “Why attribute the kindness of society to ‘God’ when ‘God’ clearly wasn’t listening to this man FOREVER?”

Another person wrote, “It was Youtube and the dude who filmed Ted who deserve most of the credit, but I can’t really find fault in the guy’s statement. I’m sure his faith got him through a lot of cold nights.”

Finally, I found this comment: “God is willing to use whatever predicament we’ve got ourselves into – good or bad – to help us see Him. Those who catch a glimpse of Him and hunger for more, will find more if they seek Him.”

So, if you believe in God, did He ignore Ted Williams for years? Was it just a random YouTube video that turned Ted’s fortunes around?

Valid answers to each question can be based on what you want to believe.

Maybe God had a very good reason for waiting so many years before giving Ted Williams a chance to change his life. And maybe God worked through YouTube to achieve his goals with Ted. Sound preposterous?  Then consider these words from God, channeled through an ancient prophet: “I [God] don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.”

The bottom line is: do you want to think of God as a big nothing or a distant ogre? Or do you want your life enriched – just as Ted Williams’ life was enriched – by thinking of God as the loving creator of the universe who cares so much for us that He sent his Son Jesus to live, die, and come back to life for us?

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