Story Time: Meet Me At The Top of What?

Gather 'round, it's story time. This happened in 2001:


I was in East Africa leaving a store, on the sidewalk I was accosted by a young man wearing what looked like pajamas (but were not). He told me he had converted from Islam to Hinduism on a trip through India. The young man was Kenyan born and bred, his parents being from Pakistan. I could tell that he was practically quivering with anticipation at finding a nice bubble-headed American to share his spiritual journey with--a special joy, I am sure, since the streams of locals plodded out of the store were, he could tell, bound to their own native-born spiritual communities as people overseas tend to be.
He begged me to enter his spiritual experience.
I extended the offer back to him.
A bit shocked at this sort of response from nice American lady, he told me in sotto voce,
“No, mum, I know it’s true, you see, I had an experience.”
“I had an experience wherein I narrowly escaped death in the middle of a busy street, you know. And facts being what they are, I might not escape it if I tumble out into that street.” I indicated to emphasize my point.
“I see, mum, I see. But you have to believe me.”
“I don’t disbelieve your experience—what I do wonder at is if it’s verifiable—is it true.”
He blinked and warbled: “As true as Christianity.”
“I am not sure you understand that depth and breadth of Christianity. While I savor Christianity in my experience, it is not founded in my experience.”
I stopped and waited for him, but he allowed me continue:
“The Christian gospels contain the prophecy, and the story of the coming, the works, the crucifixion, subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ: who was seen by more than 500 witnesses—including the nonconverted—and it has all the marks of historical facts. Therefore not to pay homage to it is akin to running into that stream of cars, while all the time denying their existence. The founding of Christianity is grounded in an identifiable time and documented place. By its nature, it occupies someplace in another universe from the one wherein I try to replicate a single experience of yours. But, thank you.” (As a polite American I say thank you and smile.) - Charity Johnson
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“It is as easy to be logical about things that do not exist as about things that do exist. If twice three is six, it is certain that three men with two legs each will have six legs between them. And if twice three is six, it is equally certain that three men with two heads each will have six heads between them. That there never were three men with two heads each does not invalidate the logic in the least. It makes the deduction impossible, but it does not make it illogical. Twice three is still six, whether you reckon it in pigs or in flaming dragons, whether you reckon it in cottages or in castles-in-the-air.”

• GK Chesterton

What Will Never Be Found Under The Christmas Tree...

Whoso with riches deals,
And thinks peace bought and sold,
Will find them slippery eels,
That slide the firmest hold...'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' - Solomon.

Choice Air of Truth--Love's Habitat

The Truth is stirless
Other force may be presumed to move
This then is best for confidence
When oldest cedars swerve

And oaks untwist their fists
And mountains feeble lean
How excellent a body that
stands without a bone

How vigorous a force
that holds without a prop
Truth stays herself-and every man
that trusts Her-boldy up-

• Emily Dickinson (c.1863)

Dickinson wrote poems peppered with dashes, which gives her poetry an odd (and differing) interpretation. I tend to remove most of them and let the reader make the interpretation. (She also tended to capitalize without regard for rules.)

Meanwhile....Back to the Honest Doubters

I spent a couple days browsing the web looking for good Christian websites or blogs--I haven’t found too many. I know I am picky: my standards are strict for both the appearance and the content. As I read the blogs/websites, I tried put myself in the shoes of an agnostic, if there really is such as thing. I was looking for a broad view on the spiritual landscape. Eventually, I returned to hard copies for the best, most probing pieces. I agree with C S Lewis that George MacDonald is one of the best original Christian thinkers of the past 200 years. MacDonald pointedly deals with covert doubts that people harbor, and even leans towards celebrating honest doubters but without sacrificing the Truth of Christ. True to Christ whom he loves, MacDonald has a penchant for condemning false religion (going through the motions). No wonder he was an ostracized minister in his lifetime.
(I have updated his language) –
Honesty Before God, Honest Ignorance vs Going Along to Get Along
“Don’t let your cowardice agree that a word is ‘light’ because another calls it ‘light,’ [if] it looks to you [like] darkness. Either say the thing is not what is seems, or that God never said or did it.
But it is wrong to misinterpret what God does and then say the thing, as [someone has represented it to you], must be right because God did it. No, that is of the devil. But, on the other hand, do not try to believe anything that affects you as darkness.
Still, even if you [make] a mistake and refuse to believe something is true, you will have done less wrong to Christ by your refusal than if you had initially accepted [believed] something to be of Him while it really seemed to be darkness to you. 
 [It is better in practice to ] Let your words be few, so as to prevent yourself from saying anything which later you’ll regret in your heart.”
 - George MacDonald

Cornering the Market?

“Poets have… often communicated in their own mode of expression truths identical with the theologians’ truths; but just because of the difference in the modes of expression, we often fail to see the identity of the statements.”

• Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker

Time-It Won't Last Forever....

(more on metaphysics:)
II Let’s talk about Time-It's What We Have Least of....
Because my husband is away for weeks at a time, and usually thousands of miles from home, we are highly sensitive to the passage of time and its mysteries. Before he leaves, neither of us wants to talk about the time that he’ll be away, so we live in denial, nearly until the day he leaves. While he’s away we avoid the topic of time, but speak about what we will do when he returns. When he returns we always remark on how far away he was just the day before and how remarkable it is that he’s home now.

“Time is a funny thing,” my husband says, "You think the day will never arrive-then it does-and then it's past. Looking back, it seems like I was never there." When he says this I silently muse that this is how it is with our lives.
C.S. Lewis says of the verse in II Peter 3:8, “…with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” that it “seems to take us out of the time-series altogether” (which is somewhat ironic, since Peter’s experience with the Lord is firmly based in time, space and reality). To Lewis this passage suggests because God is permanent and eternal, there is no past for Him and adds that we actually seek to be loosed from Time’s domination.
By that, I mean, that though we live in time, organize it, plan around it (or not), we are still shackled to it. It’s as if we are chained to a dead man and we cannot do anything in life without making arrangements to somehow work around this corpse we cannot unchain ourselves from (for it is quite dour).
You can see what I mean if you consider your best moments in life: you “lose all track of time” when you are immersed in a great conversation, with good company, or in a wonderful experience, whether in learning, outdoors, or a story (or movie). Parties are never better than those in which you have no sense of self-consciousness, but wherein you are “in the moment” and “time flies.” (Probably for this reason, the period from puberty through young-adulthood is the worst time, for one seems to be perpetually self-conscious.)
Lewis goes on to say, “…our hope is to emerge [from this earthbound life]… from the tyranny [of time], the unilinear poverty, of time… to ride it not to be ridden by it, and so to cure that aching wound which mere succession and mutability inflict on us, almost equally when we are happy as when we are unhappy.”
Lewis points out the obvious about our perspective on time: we are never quite used to the passing of time. He finds this remarkable since it’s unavoidable to be in this physical universe and not be affected by the passage of time. Lewis writes, “How he’s grown!” we exclaim, “How time flies!” as though the universal form of our experiences were again and again a novelty. It is as strange as if a fish were repeatedly surprised by the wetness of water.” We (humans) notice and are continually surprised by the mark of time when we revisit friends to find them aged, attend a 10th or 20th reunion, or hit an anniversary. On those occasions, if not every morning, it seems something passes our lips, as we voice a thought on the passage of time.
Lewis suggests that time is so outstanding to us because we were never really made to be finite creatures-but rather for eternity: “…[it would be strange as if a fish were repeatedly surprised by the wetness of water] unless of course fish were destined to become, one day, a land animal.” Upon experiencing land, the fish would be contented not to have to be wet anymore—just as we, once we enter into eternal life, might settle back in the Eternal Kingdom, as say, “Ah yes, this is right-no more time or worry about the passage of time.”
(CS Lewis is quoted from final chapter in “Reflections on the Psalms”)
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How Man Manages and Searching for Meaning

I've noted polar opposite (and extreme) differences in the way people live out their lives on earth with respect to time. At one extreme, I call it “Managed Man.” He’s carefully, thoughtfully, planned out and managed his life so as to reach the end in the fullness of health and wealth. Managed Man plans against all possible disastrous occurrences, and plans to avoid them all. Managed Man has little use for God. God is beyond his control. The problem with this life is that everyone dies in the end. God cannot be avoided.
The second group is the one that lives for today, often times he’s the one who thinks he’s going to die young anyway. He’s Hell-On-Wheels, Live-for-Today. He’ll take too many known risks: drinking, drugs, poor eating habits, bad behaviors, etc. For some reason, he’s decided he’s not worthy of God’s respect and love, so why bother trying? Often he assumes he’s “not good enough” for God and “going to hell anyway,” so he might as well enjoy life here. Live-for-Today Man, despite his cocky attitude, is quite afraid to face enquire into what the truth might actually be: God as Father does not treat His sons as hated sons who are worthy only if they perform, but as beloved (and needy) little ones-whom He craves to be loved by.
Most people fall in the middle between these two extremes. Wherever we are now, if we ignore the Big Questions, we'll always be distracted and caught up in the little questions. Big Questions deserve honest and focused exploration. If we instead choose to live in distracted denial, we'll abort a significant growth step. 
I submit that it would likely embarrass humanity if we had any idea that the only thing God craved yet lacked a return on the love He has for us.
I Clearing The Ground:
Let's say "Managed Man" and "Live-For-Today" man have both decided to take a step forward and to take stock of what is ahead of him beyond this temporal life. When he does, he will soon realize he cannot do this alone, he'll find that man cannot shut himself up in himself, as if in a little world, and have all he needs at hand to sufficiently explain himself to himself. I suggest each man should first make a personal inventory of his immanent resources.
To do that, he should recognize both his aspirations towards things that are good, a thirst for truth and faithfulness, or certainty, or a sense of fulfillment. If he is makes an honest and concerted effort to do so, will find that he cannot reach these goals or ends on his own. The gap left between the desire and dream and his ability to comprehend it, points out simply that man needs, desperately needs, some kind of transcendent help beyond this little world.
It is at this point he has cleared the ground and has begun a search for meaning.
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