I had lunch the other day with a friend. He’s also a
client. He’s in his 80’s but maintains the appearance of someone not a day over
65. We chit-chatted about family and the weather for a while but then the
conversation veered off into more serious topics about which he has much more
expertise and experience. I had sent him an e-mail several weeks ago asking for
his guidance, and now I was getting it.
The guidance I was seeking was in the arena of
theology, a topic rife with trip wires and land mines. Who better to ask than
an octogenarian pastor with 60 years of ministry experience? If I would have
recorded our hour and a half conversation, I could have made a million bucks!
He started out this way, “Doug, the first thing I
should say is that I’m not going to be able to provide answers to all of your
questions, because they have also been my
questions throughout most of my life.” From a man who scaled the heights of his
profession, who is widely respected for his intelligence and accomplishments,
the first thing I get from him is…humility.
My questions for him concerned theological doubts
that I have been struggling with, largely centered on the unanswerable
questions of eternity and the complexity inherent in competing truth claims,
etc.. I won’t go into the details here because they aren’t important. As I
listened to him, I realized that my doubts have plagued much greater minds than
mine. That, in and of itself, was comforting. Then he hit me with a series of
amazing insights. I will paraphrase them:
“You know Doug, for years I used to get up every
morning and repeat that great verse from Psalms, this is the day that the Lord hath made, let us be glad and rejoice in
it. But I don’t do that as often as I used to. Now I find myself repeating
another verse, this one from 2 Corinthians 10 that says: “..casting down
imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of
God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” You
see Doug; there are some things that I’m never going to fully comprehend this
side of eternity. It’s not anti-intellectualism to admit the limits of human understanding.
So, every morning, along with all of my other problems, I hand over my doubts
to God too.”
This from a man who has suffered great, crushing
loss of those nearest and dearest to him, a man who along with great
accomplishment, has also known great disappointment. Despite it all, he sits across
the table from me confident, triumphant, and full of love for God and zest for
life.
No, he didn’t answer all of my questions, partly
because he doesn’t have the requisite ego and arrogance to assume that he
could. But he did provide powerful insights that I hadn’t considered, insights
forged through years of diligent study and observation. I came away thinking
that there is room in Christianity for a quirky, over-thinking skeptic like me.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Vander Warner
Jr.
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