Sunday, March 6, 2011

thy will be done, a supposal


I'm sitting in the subway station. There's been a terrible accident. All the lights are off and it is completely silent. My i-phone won't light up but, fortunately, I can still text in the dark. If you receive this message, please call 911 and tell them to find me. I'm somewhere under New York City in the subway station. I don't know exactly where because I got into an annoying conversation with a woman at 5th and Madison. She was a Christian. They drive me crazy. She sat next to me and smiled, that smug little smile. She was reading C.S. Lewis, the atheist who lost his nerve. I asked her if she was a Christian.


"Yes, I am. Are you?"


"No, religion is a crutch. I want to face reality on my own," I told her.


"Funny," she said,"that's what this author used to think."


"Yeah, I know, he got conned." She needed to hear the truth, poor girl.


"Actually, no. He fought it for years but gave in to reason. He came to faith because he had no other rational choice. He realized that he had spent his life either being mad at God for not being there or mad at God FOR being there. The crux of it all was that he was mad at God because God was real."


"No, it's a wish. We're just a cosmic accident and you're too chicken to accept it."


"No, THAT'S a wish. You do realize that it's easier to believe that we're an accident, and not responsible for anything, right? THAT's the cop-out, not Christianity. And you do realize that there aren't enough numbers to describe the odds of creating a universe like ours by accident, right? "


"Ludicrous," I told her. "Christianity is a farce. A story made up by frightened disciples."


"Really? Then where's the body?"


"The what?"


"The body. If it was a story, it could have easily been quieted by showing the body, something the Romans would have loved to do. The Roman Empire searched far and wide for that body, but they couldn't find it...Why? What if He really did rise from the dead and ascend to Heaven?"


"What? You've got to be kidding."


"Think about it. The Romans were invincible, they could have stopped the Christians...why didn't they? And those frightened disciples became emboldened and wisened and were also put to death...yet they were unafraid. One of Lewis' friends challenged him with this question: What if it really happened? Then what?"


"Well, I don't know. I don't believe in that Heaven and Hell stuff...just a bunch of morality and fear in my opinon."


"Well, if God is real and all good, then the place where He is is going to be all good. That sounds like Heaven to me. And if He is all good, then the place where He isn't, is going to be awful. That sounds like Hell. C.S. Lewis described Heaven as a place where all the inhabitants declare to God THY will be done whereas Hell is a place where God says to the inhabitants, thy will be done. What if God is real and He wanted to give you a choice about knowing Him. What if Heaven is the better choice and Hell is the choice where you get to have it your way, eternity without Him. That's not a moral prod, it's a relationship choice. Have you ever read the Old Testament?"


"You mean the New Testament, right, the one about Christ."


"No, you should read the Old Testament. The entire Old Testament contains thousands of clues that Jesus Christ is the coming Messiah. These clues are what turned those frightened disciples into daring men of faith. If you read, for instance, Psalm 22 it would frighten the living daylights out of you."


"Why?"


"Because it refers to the death of Christ, by crucifixion almost a thousand years before He came and before the Romans invented that form of death. Is that an accident? I don't think so. It's the solution to the mystery before the mystery is even understood. Personally, I think that Christianity is real and you're too chicken to admit it."


"Ahh, turning the tables. Very clever."


"Perhaps. Or perhaps it's true. You really should do some soul searching my friend. May God bless you and reveal Himself to you. Have a nice day." Then she gathered her things and got off at the next stop.


Soul searching my foot. That woman was blind. She's the one with the problem not me.


Right then all Hell broke loose on the train. It crashed suddenly, I think it collided with another one. The roof caved in. Everyone was screaming, lights were flashing, people were crying, praying, and running until the darkness came. Darkness. That's all I've seen. I suppose all the other people are dead. It's wierd, I can't find a soul, can't smell a thing, or even hear anything but my own thoughts. It's lucky I have my phone, even though it doesn't work.


Wait a minute. I think I hear something. I think I see something, too. I'm walking in the tunnel of darkness here. I suppose any second I'll trip on a dead body. I seem to hear faint voices and see a faint light...I've been walking for what seems like an eternity now. The light is closer, it's hurting my eyes. I can hear the voices...they're...singing. And the light...it's peaking through some cracks the way sun rays peak through rain clouds. I'm getting closer. I can see the cracks. Wait, they're letters...something has been carved in the floor of my ceiling...it says..."thy will be done."










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