Right now, I'm struggling a bit.  I'll explain why in  a minute.  You may know that I have recently finished the final draft of "The Reasonable Person- Due Process of Law, Logic and Faith" and am presently seeking a publisher for the book.  The book is intended to accomplish a couple of things.  Most importantly, I hope it demystifies Christianity, especially for people who  didn't grow up in church.  And I hope that it provides a logical framework with which to analyze the claims of Christianity.  After reading it, you should be able to determine what you believe, at least as to God, and why you believe it.

I have a theory that, at least to some extent, modern Christianity has recreated a Pharisaical-like structure, as the faith has become increasingly organized.  In Jesus' time, the Jewish establishment, the Pharisees, had created an intricate and complex system of rules and requirements that had to be followed.  Or, at least all those claiming to be good Jews had to follow them.  They were the self-appointed gatekeepers to God.  The rules included requirements like ritual washing and bathing, in order to be clean enough to enter the  temple.  And they included the giving of alms and other similar rule, which at least in theory, gave one a better chance at Heaven.

Jesus came along and challenged the system.  He said that what was on people's hearts mattered much more than following rules.  He said that it was most important to love God, and to love your fellow man.  The Pharisees hated Jesus.  They constantly tried to trip him up.  The funny thing though, is that they never did.  They had studied the Hebrew Bible since childhood, were from the best families and had gone to the best schools.  Jesus was a carpenter from Galilee.  And Galilee was sort of the Appalachia of the Middle East.  Most civilized people thought that not much good could ever come from there.

In many of our Christian churches today, we've created similar systems.  You have to know when to stand, when to kneel and whether it's "trespasses" or "debts."   Some congregations prohibit musical instruments in worship.  Others require baptism.  And still others create new rules by throwing out all of the old ones.  You can spot these groups because everyone wheres bermudas and flip flops to church.  They've turned the rules on their end.  But like the hippies of the '60s, eventually the societal majority emulates these "rebels" and they become mainstream.  Think of the Beatles song "Revolution" as elevator Muzak. 

In any of these cases, the issue is that there are insiders and outsiders.  And the insiders want to stay insiders.  It's not that they are necessarily trying to prevent outsiders from participating.  It's simply more a case of they like things the way they are.  They don't want anyone to change their "system."  It's comfortable and they like comfort.

Which brings me to why I'm struggling right now.    As I explained at the beginning of this post, I've recently finished the final draft of "The Reasonable Person."  I've spent almost five years of my life working on it.  I've written it while working in a very demanding in-house practice and being a husband and dad as well.  The book has over 500 footnotes and I have painstakingly provided scriptural reference to every substantial assertion contained in the book.  I wrote the book for one reason and ironically, it's for the same reason that I wrote my first book, "Law School Labyrinth- The Guide to Making the Most of Your Legal Education" (Kaplan Publishing, 2d Ed., May 3, 2012).   I wrote Labyrinth to help struggling law students.  I wrote The Reasonable Person" to help non-Christians who are struggling with finding meaning in their lives, and to help Christians who are struggling with their faith.

I've asked two preachers in Nashville mega-churches to take a look at the manuscript.  I didn't ask them to review it.  I didn't ask them to endorse it.  I didn't even ask them to read the entire book.  I asked them to take a look at it.  I asked them to take a look at it for one reason.  I wanted a doctrinal perspective on the book.  In other words, I wanted them to look at the book and tell me whether the felt that it was built upon sound biblical doctrine.  I'm a lawyer and not a theologian.  The book is written from a lawyer's perspective.  So, I wanted to make sure that someone with clergy credentials had "blessed" it (in the vernacular, and  not as a pun).

The funny thing is, both had virtually the exact same response.  It was almost as if they were responding from a script.  Each of them said, "Thanks, but I've got too much on my plate right now."

And I struggle with that.  I  struggle with it because we've all got too much on our plates these days.  The secret is to figure out what is important and invest your time in it.  A person can run in hundreds of directions, chasing this and responding to that.  But a person who has an impact knows how to decide what their life's purpose is and do all that they can to fulfill that purpose.  I believe that God has a purpose for me, and I believe He has provided the Holy Spirit to help me accomplish it.  So, I spend a lot of my quiet time doing all that I can to hear Him and try to discern His will.  And I believe He wanted me to tell the story contained in "The Reasonable Person." 

"The Reasonable Person" is intended to demystify Christianity.  I feel that we have overcomplicated the subject, which really only deals with a couple of things.  God loves me and He loves you.  He sent His Son Jesus to live among us, teach us and provide an example for how He wants us to live.  He became one of us.  God was one of us.  And when that part of Jesus' mission was completed, God allowed Jesus to be sacrificed as payment, once and for all, for the sins of every single person.  It righted the cosmic scales forever.  The blood of God outweighed the sum total  of every sin that man could ever commit.  He paid for my sins and He paid for your sins.  It's what Christians call a "free gift."  All you have to do is receive it through faith in Him.  It's really not that mysterious.

I don't know, I suppose that there are people who would prefer that it remain mysterious.  There certainly were those people, the Pharisees, in Jesus' time.  The mystery preserved the status quo.  And it meant job security for them.  But God doesn't want gatekeepers.  Jesus welcomed everyone- sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, and I suppose even lawyers.  God wants every single person to come to Him.

So, I suppose the book will have to go to print without being "blessed."  But I'm okay with that.  And somehow, I think He is as well.

You know who I'm talking about.  You might even be one of them.  "Wrong side of the tracks" Christians are people who, despite accepting Jesus as their savior, continue to struggle with sin and doubt.  They probably didn't grow up going to church.  They may have had very difficult lives.  Perhaps they grew up in dysfunction such as alcoholism or abuse.  They may carry deep emotional scars.  They think of themselves as being from the wrong side of the spiritual tracks.

They see people in church who are dressed nicely and seem so happy. Wrong side of the tracks Christians think that they don't measure up.  This causes them to avoid committing to a church or really getting invested in it.  They go to church to worship but get out as quickly as they can, hoping that they won't be noticed.  Of course, the truth is that we are all broken.  We've all got issues.  And only God can really fix them.

Their self-deception is reinforced unintentionally by others.  We get caught up in their various "care groups" or "life groups" or "worship groups" or whatever other term currently in vogue with contemporary Christian churches.  These "right side of the tracks" Christians are in the middle of all of it.  They are in the mainstream.  They are surrounded by support and Christian friendship. 

However, in today's mega-churches, people can get lost.  Wrong side of the tracks Christians are especially vulnerable.  They walk in the door with an open heart.  But they can be made to feel unwelcome.  A friend of mine joined a church a few years ago that had substituted its Sunday night service for smaller "life groups".  These were smaller groups that met at church members' homes; an alternative to formal Sunday night worship.  Often, they consist of families that have known each other for years.  The problem, however, was that my friend never got invited to join a group.  Somehow, he got lost in the administrative shuffle.  It became a "by invitation only" worship meeting.  Eventually, he faded away.  His Christian journey was detoured by an administrative error.

American Christianity has always been concerned with outreach ministry.  Frequently, it takes the form of charitable and missionary support in an undeveloped country.  This is a spiritual "no-brainer" in that we help deal with that countries immediate an pressing  needs- clean water, food, clothing, shelter and medical care.  And there are often Christians at the forefront of these efforts.  They give selflessly of their time and are personally involved in helping those less fortunate.  Katie Davis, of Amazima Ministries is a perfect example of this selflessness.  She takes this type of ministry to a new level.  She moved to Uganda and became a foster mom to kids who need her in every possible way.  Katie has clearly put her money where her mouth is.  Hers is an "up close and personal" ministry. 

The rest of us typically give money.  I'm not knocking money.  We all work hard for it and giving to charity is certainly one form of Christian sacrifice.  Without money, Katie couldn't do what she does.  You might be thinking, "How on earth can I do what Katie Davis does?  I've got a job and a family to support.  I can't simply drop everything to get "up close and personal" with people.  All I can do is give money." 

And that brings me to the point.  You can do something.  And you can do it right where you are today.  All you have to do is one thing.  Look around you.  Look at people in your neighborhood.  Look at people at work.  Look at people in your church.  Chances are, there are people who need help.  There are probably some wrong side of the tracks Christians struggling.  You can help them. 

Another friend of mine became a Christian well into his forties.  I'm sure that this fact alone made him feel like he was from the wrong side of the spiritual tracks.  He could have easily slipped through the tracks at his church.  But that isn't what happened.  After his first confession of faith, the church leadership assigned him a "mentor." This mentor was a mature Christian, well along in his Christian knowledge, faith and development.  My friend explained that his mentor "was available anytime, 24/7 to answer any questions and deal with any issues I might have had."  This set my friend on the right path and today his faith is strong and his commitment to God is incredible.

So the next time you are in church, look around.  See if you can spot a wrong side of the tracks Christian.  And if you can't, they try this.  Find anyone.  Ask them how they are doing.  Ask them about their faith walk.  And then listen.  You might be surprised at what you hear.  And make up your mind to help others.  Then do it.  In big ways and small.  Find people around you that you can help.

After all, that's what Jesus did. 

Christian preachers and teachers, in their zeal to follow Jesus’ command to share the gospel[1], can seem at times to value conversion quantity over quality.   They
measure their spiritual wealth by their converts.  But these folks can become so focused on winning souls for Christ that they inadvertently may omit the spiritual fine
print.  They don’t tell you that you have to work at your faith.[2]  Their focus is entirely on convincing non-believers to accept Jesus and get saved.  

These evangelists characterize the Christian experience as a miraculous
transformation.  Typically, at the end of their message, they issue an invitation to their audience to pray a prayer and ask Jesus to come into their hearts. And to be fair, in many cases, that’s all it takes.  A person prays the prayer and their life is instantaneously, permanently and irreversibly changed.

 But some new believers expecting the process to be instantaneous are disappointed.  For these people, the change seems to be only temporary.  They still have problems.  They still struggle with sin.  They begin to question the validity of their conversion.   Things haven’t worked out as promised so they blame God.   But they were rushed into making a commitment that they really hadn’t  thought about.  They didn’t really  understand the prayer that they prayed.  
 
Their conversion was more akin to a  fast-food experience.   They  were told, “Pray the prayer, God comes into your life and all your problems go  out the window.  Pray the prayer  and God will do the rest.”  In a  sort of a get rich quick spiritual scheme, these new Christians are told to sit  back, enjoy the ride and be blessed by God
beyond comprehension.  But when life’s troubles arise as they inevitably do (and are scripturally  predicted), these people are disappointed, and perhaps embittered. 
Eventually they may fall away from their faith.   And they blame it on a god that failed
them.

 I believe that Christian conversion is absolutely miraculous. And I believe that it can be, but does not have to be,  instantaneous.  Or at least, the effects of the conversion may not be instantaneously visible.   And I also believe that we are saved by God’s grace which we receive through faith.[3]  

But Christian growth is a process.   You ask Jesus to come into your  heart, declare yourself to be a Christian and promise to follow Him.   The entire act of becoming a Christian takes a few seconds, at most.  But you spend the rest of your life  developing this relationship through a daily, if not hourly, step-by-step faith  walk.  You learn to give every  single aspect of your life to Him.   You stumble. And you begin  the process again. This is the  Christian growth process.

 To be fair, anytime that the Creator of the  Universe reaches out to mankind, then by definition a miracle has occurred.  Having a relationship with the Creator  of the universe is nothing short of miraculous. But an authentic Christian experience  is, in reality, also lot of work.   This is not to say that Christian salvation is based on our works.  It’s not.   We are saved by God’s grace; a free gift in the form of Jesus.  But faith that doesn’t turn into action  isn’t really faith.[4]  

God is ultimately responsible for the change that occurs in true  Christians.  But we have to  cooperate and at times simply get out of His way.   And letting God truly run our lives, giving it all completely to Him, is  a daily, if not hourly challenge.  
 
Humans want to control things.   Giving your life to God means surrendering all control over it, and it  goes against our nature.[5]  But the sooner you surrender, the sooner God can begin to change you into  a new creature- less worry, less fear, less temptation, less anger, angst and  all of the rest of the bad psyche stuff.[6]  
 
Christianity is a lifelong process of growth that occurs through the relinquishment of self to God.    Some Christian proselytizers avoid this fine print.   When their new converts realize that they still have problems, they may  simply give up and move on to the next thing.   The truth is that these folks  intended to lead others to Christ,  but led them only in the general vicinity of Christ.    This is not to say that  these new converts are not Christians and were not miraculously  transformed.  They were.  They were transformed by God into new  creatures as a result of their faith in Jesus.[7]   But as long as these new believers wait on a miraculous tangible experience, they will delay the heavy lifting and hard work that comes with the Christian process. Worse, they may  even give up hope waiting for that miracle and eventually abandon their faith.  
 
Jesus himself explained a long time ago that this would happen through his parable of the sower and the seed.[8]   People can hear about Jesus, but things in this life get in the way of a  truly fulfilling spiritual experience.   The truth is, you have to work at being a Christian.   You have to work at your faith.
 
 
[1]Mark 16.
 
[2]James 1-5.
 
[3]Ephesians 2.

 [4]James 2:14-26.
 
[5]Deuteronomy 10:12-22.

 [6]2 Corinthians 5.
 
[7]Id.
 
[8]Matthew 13:1-23

I was walking to the office water cooler recently and ran into one of my company's senior executives.  We smiled at each other.  We exchanged the expected formalities, "Hey, how are you?" and "Great, how about you?" and so on.   But as we were leaving, I caught, or thought I caught, a strange look from him. 

I quickly went through a mental checklist- did I owe him something?  Or had I done anything that could have offended him.  I didn't think so, but then again, I had seen "the look".  What had I done?  What is he saying about me behind my back?

I hate "the look".  It drives me crazy.  Some people are oblivious to it.  But us sensitive types perceive it and proceed to dwell on it all day.  We ask ourselves whether we have somehow offended the person giving "the look".  We can drive ourselves crazy.  On the other hand, oblivious types never even discern "the look."  They cruise through life, perhaps offending people and perhaps not.  But in either case, they are completely unaware.

Psychologists tell us that there are two basic types of people- those who are motivated primarily by external stimuli, and those who are motivated by stimuli from within.  The first type carried to an extreme is  the "people pleasers"; those unfortunate folks who invest countless energy trying to please everyone.  The second type in its extreme form is the sociopath; the "I'm right and everyone else is wrong" person.  And of course, there is an entire range of people falling between these two extremes.

Psychologists generally don't discuss the possibility of a third type.  These people don't always do what they think others want them to do.  And they aren't solely concerned with self-interest either.   These people do what they believe God wants them to do. 

You might wonder how someone can know what God wants them to do.  Actually, it's pretty simple.  As with any analysis, you have to start with some assumptions.  In this case, you start with the assumption there is a God.  And you assume that He is accurately depicted in the Bible; futher, that the Bible is actually His inspired Word.  Once you make these assumptions, knowing God's will becomes fairly simple. 

The Bible teaches us with a great deal of precision what He wants us to do.  You have to read it, digest it and understand it, of course.  But that's no different than mastering any subject.  If you want to understand the law, you have to read the statute, or perhaps a judge's opinion.  If you want to understand your finances, you have to plow through bank statements, retirement plans and the like.

There's one other point.  The Bible also teaches us that God will reveal His will to us through His Holy Spirit.  The Old Testament prophets talked about it.  Jesus talked about it.  The apostles talked about it.  And the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit occupies the hearts and minds of Christians.  We may have a hard time hearing Him, with all of the static and interference of our daily lives.  But, like a faithful Friend, He's always there, just waiting for us to commune with Him.

So, I can worry what people are saying about me behind my back. And I can do everything possible not to offend anyone.  Or, I can have the attitude that I will be true to my own principles, and not worry about what anyone thinks about me.  But there's a third alternative.  I can  allow God to guide me, through His Word, and through His Holy Spirit.  I can have faith in His Son.  And I can do everything possible to please Him.  And rest in the confidence that He has already provided restitution for my bad acts, about two thousand years before I was born.

And the next time I get "the look", who knows?  Maybe his contacts are bothering him.

Christians say that to become a Christian, you must trust Jesus or invite Jesus into your heart or some similarly confusing phrase that is generally meaningful only to Christians who have been through it.   Even if you know very little about Christianity, you have probably heard these phrases and perhaps scoffed a bit at trusting someone who died a long time ago.   You might have even asked yourself “with what?”  Well-meaning folks will tell you to trust Jesus in the same way that a husband might say to his wife in their car, after passing the same landmark three times, “Trust me, I know where I’m going.”  They are asking you to trust in someone you have never seen and likely not even read much about.  But you should know that these people trust Jesus because they know Him.  They’ve seen Him work in their lives.  However, before you can trust Jesus with your day-to-day life, you have to trust Him with an initial leap of faith.  

 The Leap of Faith 

There is abundant scripture that clearly explains that we are saved by faith and nothing else.[1]  If we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who died for our sins, we will be saved.  If you want to know the Christian perspective on something, the best way to do it is to understand what Christ said about it.  And we come to the conclusion that Jesus saves, based upon the words of Jesus himself.  He said that if we believe in Him, we are saved.  In particular, we read the story of the woman who washed Jesus feet at the home of the Pharisee.[2]  Jesus says to her clearly and unequivocally that she was saved from her sins because of her belief.[3]

You have to understand and acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God.  Certainly, many people study and go to church for years before they take that first step.  But I suspect that there are just as many people who make that first decision to trust Jesus spontaneously, in response to a crisis or emotional presentation.  Or, perhaps their hearts are simply open to the idea.  I think the Holy Spirit can predisposition us to accepting Jesus, without a lot of deep thought or analysis.  The idea simply and clearly resonates for us.  And with very little church involvement or Christian education, they simply and purely decide to trust Him with their lives.  

In fact, that pure step of faith can become more difficult, the longer we wait to do it.  This is because we get so caught up in the troubles of this world, that we lose our ability to muster faith.  Instead, we become cynical, jaded and pessimistic.  We lose our child-like ability to trust.  This make it difficult for us to believe that God does love us. 
 
The Faith Walk: Faith in Jesus for
Sanctification

There are people who will tell you to ask Jesus in to your heart and have faith in Him, and then all your problems will be solved.  But for many, that first step can be a gigantic.  And in my case, it certainly wasn’t true.  Although I had taken that first step of faith, I did not continue in a daily walk of faith in Him.

This seeming contradiction is because we are really talking about two kinds of faith. 
The first kind of faith is that initial leap of faith that they took when they first accepted Jesus as their savior. This faith is in the fact that Jesus’ death is sufficient to pay for their sins and restore them to a personal relationship with God.  The second kind of faith is an active, ongoing belief that God is in control and will take care of us.  It is the conscious act of trusting God with every single aspect of your life.  It is what some Christians call their faith walk. 

As opposed to a leap of faith, this faith is a dynamic thing.  I suppose that when I first believed, it took a fair amount of faith to believe in salvation through Jesus.  But today, many years after I first believed, I see the evidence of God  throughout my life, by virtue of events and occurrences that I cannot explain
any other way.  So, my belief in Jesus today requires substantially less faith than when I was younger. 

Certainly, both kinds are ultimately faith in the same thing- God is in control and will take care of us.  But understanding faith in this way helps you to understand the reason why your initial belief in Jesus may or may not actually solve all of your problems.  Whether your daily problems are solved depends upon whether you decide to practice your faith on a daily, if not an hourly (or even more frequent) basis.

 The faith walk is the type of faith that Jesus talked about frequently with his followers.  Two particular examples involve storms on the seas.  In the first example,
following what Christians refer to as the “sermon on the mount,”[4]Jesus and his followers got on a boat and found themselves in the middle of a furious storm.[5] 
Jesus, presumably exhausted from a day filled with teaching to thousands
and miraculously healing people, fell asleep in the boat.  When the storm suddenly erupted, his followers were terrified.  Jesus asked them why they had so little
faith.   Then he rebuked the storm, and it died down.[6]  Later, during another storm, Jesus walks on the sea during a storm to join his followers on a boat.[7]  The apostle Peter, seeing Jesus walking on the water, climbed out of the boat to join him.[8]  Certainly, his act was an admirable leap of faith.  But soon after, Peter began to doubt and more immediately, sink.[9]  Jesus reached out, saved Peter and asked him why he doubted.[10]  
 
It is unlikely that Jesus would have chastised his followers for their lack of faith, if this were something beyond their control.  Jesus’ position was that faith is something that believers can strengthen.  We exercise our faith by conscious decision.  And our faith is strengthened as a result of our relinquishment of every care, worry, hope, dream and anything else in our lives to him; and his divine ntervention in our daily lives.  We learn to trust him because we learn that he can be
trusted.

This is the upside to human choice and free will.  On the one hand, our God-given ability to choose means that we can choose to sin.  But on the other hand, we can choose to trust Him, every step of the way.  Walking in faith is sort of like having a song playing in your head.  It’s there, but you can choose to change the song.  Or, it’s like a child afraid to sleep with the lights out.  It might take some real effort, but she can decide that she will not be afraid.  She consciously chooses to
ignore the boogeyman lurking under her bad.  
 
In our daily faith walk, we encounter obstacles and issues along the way.  They may manifest themselves obviously or they may be subtle.  We all have our own obstacles and hot buttons.  For some of us, fear is a big obstacle.  It might be fear of failure.  For others, it could be greed or lust.  But the obstacles all have one thing in common.  They are, in reality, obstacles that keep us from trusting God at that particular moment.  But we have the power to choose to ignore these obstacles and simply trust Him with whatever it is.  And the more that we trust in Him, the more that we realize that He can be trusted.

Christianity is as much a process as it is anything else.  From the moment we take that first leap of faith, the Holy Spirit dwells within us.  And the Holy Spirit helps us to grow our faith.  This ongoing growth- faith and obedience leads us to more faith and obedience, is called sanctification.  Sanctification is the process of Christian growth, caused by our faith in  Jesus, and enriched by our study of the Word of God.  

Slowly but surely, we get better and better.  We sin less and experience a new life- this is what being “born again” really means.  So, although technically all of it is God’s work, you have to participate, essentially by getting out of God’s way and letting his Holy Spirit work in your life. In other words, you stop resisting Him and step into that river which He created, He guides and the ultimate destination that He wants for you-  to become like Jesus.[11]
   
[1]Ephesians 2, John 3, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 15,
1 John 5.
 
[2]Luke 7.
 
[3]Luke 7:50.
 
[4]Matthew 5-7.
 
[5]Matthew 8:23.
 
[6]Id.
 
[7]Matthew 14:22-32.
 
[8]Matthew 14:29.
 
[9]Id.
 
[10]Matthew 14:31.
 
[11]

You've probably heard it.  Perhaps you shook your head and smiled to yourself.  Or maybe it made you angry.  I'm talking about "Christianspeak".  It's the language many well-intended Christians use to describe their Christian experience.  The problem with Christianspeak is that it's use can be a circular proposition.  The terminology describes something that is difficult to understand unless you've experienced it. 

Consider the term "saved".  A non-Christian hearing the term might ask "saved from what?"  It's a simple term for a complicated topic.  It can mean saved from one's sins; or it can mean saved from oneself.  It can mean saved from the natural consequences of my actions.  But fundamentally it means one's eternal salvation.  Until you've actually experienced salvation, from a Christian perspective, it's very difficult to understand what it means.  And it's harder still to describe it.  But I can tell you as a Christian that I'm saved, and when I think about it, it's a pretty incredible condition to be in.

I understand how use of the term can irritate non-Christians.  First of all, many people don't think that they need to be saved from anything, much less themselves.  And to add insult to injury, Christians tell them that there is only one way to be saved- through Jesus.  But before you get mad, just understand that Christians are simply relating what the Bible tells them that Jesus said.  He said that He is the only way. 

You might argue that this is simply misinterpretation of Jesus' words.  But I would argue that He didn't leave any room for misinterpretation.  Read the gospels.  I think you'll agree that Jesus claims were uncategorical.  And that may be why they are hard to accept for some people.  Most of us subscribe to some sort of ethical framework based in "fairness".  And it just doesn't seem fair that God would create such a narrow path to eternal salvation.  It seems more fair that He would create a system in which our good works would be weighed against our bad deeds.  And if the good outweighs the bad, then we get a free Heavenly pass.  We reap what we sow.

The problem with this framework, however, is that it rests upon a bad assumption.  Reaping what you sow assumes that we begin life with a net zero balance.  In other words, it assumes that from the moment of our life, our cosmic scale is in perfect balance.  Our ledger of life is clean of any debits or credits.  The fallacy with this thinking is simple.  God gave us our lives.  So, in truth, we begin life with a pretty large debit balance- God's gift of life to us.

And of course, it only goes downhill from there.  We consume.  We need.  We use all kinds of bad ways to get those needs met.  And the deficit balance only grows.  At some point in our lives, we may begin to act selflessly.  Selfless acts certainly reduce the deficit.  But could you ever do enough good to pay God back for your very life?  About the only way that I can think of would be to somehow sacrifice your own life in His service.  Do you know anyone who has done that lately?

I can only think of one person.  His name is Jesus.  Granted, He lived and died on earth long before I got here.  To conclude what I have about His life and death, I must rely on the documentary evidence, the Bible.  The Old Testament describes a savior who bears an eery resemblance to Jesus (Old Testament prophecy is pretty fascinating stuff.  If you want a taste, read Isaiah.  Look for references that describe Jesus birth, life and death).  The New Testament describes His life.  I also rely on the testimony of witnesses.  They tell me what they believe and the impact of it, and Him, on their lives.  I rely on the evidence in my own life.  I read the Bible.  I follow its instruction.  And it works for me.

There's one other piece of testamentary evidence upon which I rely.  The book of Acts indicates that after Jesus died and ascended into Heaven, He returned.  He wasn't in the same form that He assumed during His earthly existence.  It was in the form of a spirit, the Holy Spirit.  Jesus called it the "Comforter".  Christians believe that when we become Christians (that is, we tell God we are sorry for what we have done with our lives- essentially a deficit sin balance; we accept the fact that Jesus paid for our sins- we believe in and trust in Him; and we promise to follow Him going forward- making Him the Lord or our lives), we become indwelt with the Holy Spirit.  In other words, God comes to live within us.

The Holy Spirit ultimately validates all of it for me.  I read the Bible and He teaches me through that reading.  I pray and He "speaks" to me.  This is another misused "Christianspeak" term.  Non-Christians hear it and for them, it confirms everything.  Christians are certifiable.  They hear voices.  They're crazy.  But when God speaks to me, I mean it metaphorically.  If you've seen the movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark", you know what happens to people who are exposed directly to the power of God.  I'm talking about the Nazi officer who is carrying the Ark of the Covenant and accidently peeks into its contents.  He melts instantaneously. 

I suppose I just offended my conservative Christian friends with the foregoing analogy.  But I think the point makes sense.  God is so great, and so powerful, that I imagine a direct communication from Him, unfiltered, would probably have a severe and undesireable outcome.  At least in this life.

So, when Christians talk about God speaking, it's not audible.  Instead, He speaks to me through the Bible (His Word) and through the circumstances of my life.  He causes things to come together in such a way in my life as to continue to propel me through all of it, in such a way that I continue to become remade more and more in His likeness.  I have to continue to trust in Him for it to work.  And I have to continue to obey Him, at least as best as this miserable little human shell that I live in will allow.

More importantly, He speaks to me through the life of Jesus.  I believe that Jesus was God's Son.   Jesus is that filter through which God communicates to mankind.  He shows us that God loves us and wants to take care of us.  He shows us that God loves us so much, He was willing to suffer crucifixion and to die for us.  So, Jesus really is the only Human who ever lived who actually did end up with a credit balance on His life.  And He invested that credit balance in each of us.  It's sort of like giving us an envelope containing a check for deposit in our eternal bank account.  The check will  pay our way into Eternity.  Christians often refer to it as a "free gift".

The only question remaining is whether we will accept it.  We can cash the check.  Or we can leave it in the envelope.  

Deposit the check.  If you're not sure how, send me a message.  Or I'm guessing God has placed someone in your life who can help.  Look around you- they are there, just waiting for you to ask.  And by the way, so is He.

And have yourself a Merry little Christmas.

I love Christmas.  There are just so many good things about it.  A lot of people complain about the crass commercialization of the holiday.  But even so, the underlying goodness of Christmas is there.   For most people, regardless of their spiritual beliefs, Christmas is a special time of year.  At Christmastime, something magical happens to us.  We ease up a bit on the metaphorical gas pedal of life.  People are kinder to each other.  And of course, we buy gifts and spend time with family and friends.

During the Christmas season, the old classics abound on television-  “Miracle on 34th Street”,  Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” are a few of the shows that we love to watch and share with our children.  For the record, I’m a big television documentary fan.  I don’t like sitcoms. I don’t like variety shows.  But I’ve always watched documentaries.  Shows about history, and different places and people fascinate me.  But there is something that has begun to happen this time of year that bothers me.  It’s a certain genre of “religious” television shows.  I’m not talking about holiday shows.  I’m talking about the Jesus “reality” shows. 

There has been a trend over the past few years for some of the documentary channels to focus on the “historical” Jesus.  You’ve probably seen at least one of them.  A typical show will present the archeological “record,”[1] in order to give the viewer insight into what Jesus might have looked like and how he might have lived.  They retrace the steps Jesus may have walked and the places He may have visited.

These shows tend to focus only on the humanity of Jesus.  Some shows have gone to great lengths, using computer graphic techniques, to reconstruct what He might have looked like.  These representations are based upon what a typical Galilean male of the era would have looked like.  Others focus on how He might have grown up and the effect it might have had on His ministry.  In those days, many Jews struggled for bare subsistence.  They were essentially a captive people and many dealt with poverty and itinerant lifestyles.  They led very hard lives.  There was a huge divide between the “haves” and  “have nots”.  Jesus is portrayed as a “have not” based upon where He grew up and his circumstances, as described in the Bible.  The Jesus we see revealed in these shows is an unattractive, uneducated and deprived Jew, who barely scraped by.

These shows impute the circumstances of that time, for a typical male Jew, from a typical Jewish family, to Jesus.  Perhaps this representation of Jesus is accurate.  The underlying theme throughout these shows is that we are all a product of our environment.  If we grow up in a class-based system and are on the wrong end of it, we will rebel in favor of the “have nots”.   And that is the problem with these shows.  They inevitably want to lead you to the conclusion that Jesus was a product of his environment.  His teaching and preaching was also a product of that environment.

These shows and those positing these theories tend to portray only the human side of Jesus.  But they ignore and presumably reject the other side of Jesus, His divinity.  In other words, these theorists are willing to accept only part of the New Testament accounts of Jesus as accurate.  The problem is that you can’t have it both ways.  If parts of these accounts are inaccurate, then we must question the accuracy of the entire account.

Jesus, of course, was human.  But then again, we are talking about Someone who was a very atypical human.   Christians believe that Jesus was also the only Son of God, which of course, would make him also much more than human.  According to the biblical accounts, Jesus did some pretty fantastic things.  He somehow converted large amounts of water into a very fine and rare wine.   He restored sight to blind people.  He healed demoniacs.  He fed thousands from a few loaves of bread and pieces of fish.  He predicted His own death (and the manner of it).  He walked on water and calmed storms.  He brought dead people back to life.  And He himself was raised from the dead, after which He stayed with His disciples for 40 days and ultimately, ascended into Heaven as they watched.

Candidly, it’s just hard for me to imagine Someone like that barely scraping by, in a dirty longshirt, speaking in Aramaic uneducated slang.  I’ll admit that it’s unlikely that He looked like the blue-eyed Jeffrey Hunter in the movie “King of Kings.”  But I don’t know for sure what He looked like.  The New Testament accounts don’t tell us.  Contemporaneous secular literature doesn’t either.  And as to His socioeconomic status, I have no idea where He landed in the Jewish hierarchy.  I’m pretty sure that money and wealth were unimportant to Jesus.  If He was who He said He was, He created all of the wealth in the entire world, and it therefore belonged to Him anyway. 

I think what was really important to Him was reaching through to you and to me.  We’ll never know why his earthly ministry was so short in duration.  But its impact is nothing short of miraculous.  Contemporary mankind began measuring years by the year of His birth.  What began as a defeated little band of men and women, whose Leader was humiliated, tortured and crucified, ended up as a belief system that is followed by more people than any other in the world.  And even those who don’t follow Him, in more cases than not, celebrate His birthday.

There is really only one way to know who He was[2] and what He stood for.  We read His teachings in the Bible.  We test the validity of those teachings through our own life experiences.

The Old Testament is filled with prophecies of the coming Savior of the world.  The list of these prophecies is sufficiently long as to be the subject of a separate blog post (or perhaps a series of blog posts).  But when you read them, I think you will come to the same conclusion that I did- the only reasonable explanation for their fulfillment is as described in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as described in the New Testament.  Jesus taught that He was the only path to God.[3]  He explained that we must be born again, in order to have eternal salvation.[4]  And all we have to do is believe in Him.[5]  That’s all He asked of His followers at the time; and that’s all He asks of us today.

Here’s how I test the validity of Jesus’ teachings in my own life.   It’s simple, but perhaps the most convincing evidence that there is.  This is empirical evidence in its purest form.  I know what I was like before I trusted in Jesus; and I know what I’m like now.  The “now” me is supernaturally better.  It’s not because I try harder now to be good.  Frankly, the harder I try, typically the more I mess up (also a point validated and written about extensively by Paul in Romans[6]). I’m better because Jesus, in way that is almost impossible to articulate, now lives within me.[7]

Certainly, if Someone gives me the gift of eternal life in Heaven, I’m going to be grateful. I’ll want to please Him.  And that’s where the old Christian hymn “Trust and Obey” comes in.  We ask Him into our hearts.  We trust in Him.  And we desire to obey Him.  But it’s the trusting and not the obedience that saves us.  He saves us.  And His Holy Spirit provides us with the tools we need to obey- love, peace, patience and all of the rest of those qualities[8] that just don’t come naturally to most people.

And the effect of Jesus on my life is the bottom line.  What He looked like, how He dressed and spoke, and how much money He had simply aren’t important to me.   And focusing on these things about Him completely miss the point.  It’s sort of like focusing on one toenail of the Statue of Liberty, or one rivet in the Eiffel Tower.  If you do, you will completely miss the experience.  You won’t see the big picture.  You won’t understand the intent behind the work.  So, watching a Jesus “reality” show may be theoretically interesting.  I suppose it’s kind of fun to imagine what His life may have been like.  But then again, we are talking about the earthly life of the Creator of the entire universe, who is an eternal being. 

Here’s a suggestion.  If you are channel-surfing over the holidays and one of those shows comes on, turn it off.  Open up your Bible to Matthew, Mark, Luke of John.  Instead of hypothesizing about whether Jesus had blue or brown eyes, read about Him firsthand.  Read what He said.  Read about what He did.  Then come to your own conclusion about who He was.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.



[1] I use quotation marks around the word “record” because, as with anything historical, it is subject to interpretation.  For some reason, we humans tend to attribute a greater degree of credibility to anything that purports itself to be scientific.  But the truth is that scientists make as many mistakes as anyone else.  And so do archeologists.   And because something is presented as scientific or archeological evidence, it does not mean that the evidence is necessarily valid, or even supports whatever proposition it is intended to support.  Instead, all evidence should be weighed, in order to ascertain the truth about a matter.  If the evidence is consistent with the theory or resonates based upon prior experience, and it is authenticated through an independent and unbiased process, then it may be considered as relevant and perhaps even as dispositive of the matter asserted.

[2] More correctly, “who He is” because it is fundamental to Christian beliefs that Jesus has never died.

[3] John 14:6.

[4] John 3:7.

[5] John 1:12

[6] Romans 6-8.

[7] John 14:26, Romans 8:9.

[8] Galatians 5:22.

You may already be familiar with the story about the rich young man as described by Matthew in the nineteenth chapter of his gospel account.   A rich young man approached Jesus and asked Him what he must do to live forever.  This story’s presentation is a bit misleading because it occurs so matter-of-factly, without a great deal of fanfare.  But the issue presented-  mortality versus immortality- is undoubtedly the most important issue any human can face.  

What, if anything, happens after we die?  Do we simply die and that’s the end of it?  Or is there something else that happens after death?  It’s so easy to get so caught up in our daily lives that we tend to forget about it.  Or perhaps we simply avoid it.  If you think about it for any length of time, it’s bound to make you uncomfortable.   If your conclusion is that this life is it and that there is nothing after, it gets pretty depressing.  But if you believe that there is something after death, and that you can affect the outcome by your actions while here on Earth, then the stakes escalate.  For example, if you believe in a Heaven, then you will likely want to do whatever is necessary to get there.   On the other hand, if you believe in Hell, you will probably want to do whatever is necessary to avoid it.

I know there are all kinds of potential variations on this theme.  Some people believe in Heaven, but don’t believe in Hell.  But even among the people who believe in Heaven, there are differences as to exactly what Heaven is like- everything from pearly gates, to gold-paved streets; variations on the theme, if you will.  Some people believe in reincarnation-  you keep coming back to Earth after you die, in a form that is roughly related to your performance in the previous life. 

In the young man’s case, he believed that there was at least the possibility that there was life after death.   A lot of people followed Jesus because they thought he was a wise teacher.  Perhaps the rich young man admired and respected Jesus.  Presumably, the young man was well-educated.  Perhaps he enjoyed lofty spiritual debate.  It’s hard to tell from the dialogue.  But he thought enough of Jesus to ask Him what it would take to live forever.

Jesus’s response was simple.  He told the young man that he should obey God’s commands.  Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?  Do what God wants you to do and you will live forever.  Of course, the execution of it becomes infinitely more difficult. 

This is why the rich young man asked the next question.  He asked, “Which commands?”  He intuitively knew that there was no way that he could obey every single command.  It isn’t humanly possible.  In a way, he was challenging Jesus’ advice.  He was, in effect, saying “Come on Jesus, you and I both know that it isn’t possible.  Get real.  Tell me which commands are really important.”

But here’s the thing.  Jesus knew it was possible to live a completely sinless life; He was living proof of it.  Nonetheless, He went with the question.  He said that if the young man just obeyed what were in essence the Ten Commandments, he would live forever.   

But the rich young man was pretty fired up at this point.  He was, after all, intelligent and rich. That should amount for something, shouldn’t it?  He quickly responded “I’ve always obeyed these commandments.”  I imagine he thought the discussion was over at that point.  He had gotten Jesus to agree that he was going to Heaven.  He had lived a good life.  He had passed the test. 

But, like most of us who feel pretty good about our lives, the rich young man couldn’t stop there.  He decided to go for an A plus.  He asked Jesus “What else do I need to do?”  Something tells me that Jesus knew, before the conversation even started, that the young man would eventually get to this point.

And then Jesus got to the point.  He told the rich young man that if he wanted to get to Heaven, he would need to give up everything and follow Him.

I remember as a kid, seeing funny picture book of monkeys.  The monkeys were dressed up as people, and put into people situations.  Three monkeys were playing cards, smoking cigars and drinking scotch.  On another page, a “husband” monkey and a “wife” monkey were having a spat.  And there was a picture of a monkey “family” picnic- a “mom” monkey and a “dad” monkey, with “brother” monkey and “sister” monkey eating sandwiches and drinking lemonade.  The book was funny because the monkeys had been dressed up and put into human situations.

But here’s the thing.  As cute as the pictures were, the monkeys were still monkeys.  Off camera, they probably messed up the props and sets.  They fought.  Their handlers were careful, and didn’t for one minute get fooled into thinking that the monkeys wouldn’t bite them if agitated.  A monkey, no matter how you dress it up, is a monkey.  The same applies to humans. 

Deep down inside, if we really think about it, we understand that we can never earn our way into Heaven.  No matter how hard we want to, or how hard we try, we are going to fail.  It’s just not humanly possible for an imperfect human to earn his way into a perfect place.   In my own case, I can assure you that my thoughts and actions typically diverge from God’s will within five minutes of awakening each day.  The cares and worries of this world quickly take over.  Before I know it, and despite my best intentions, I take a path that is different from the one God wants me to take.  Certainly, I do my best to correct my path to conform to His will.  But no matter how hard I try, I simply don’t measure up.  I’m simply human.  I can dress myself up, I can go to church, I can give money to charity and all of the rest of it.  But at my core, I’m a human being and all that comes with it.

The rich young man’s question presumed that with enough effort, he could earn his way into heaven.  I understand the presumption.   After all, the young man was rich.  Rich people tend to believe that they earned their riches.  So it makes sense that he would believe he could earn his way into Heaven.

But the truth is, it all comes from God.  God created the universe.  He created mankind.  He created you and me.  And everything that we have, one way or the other, can be attributed to God.  Our health, our intelligence, our gifts; all come from God.  How can we earn our way into God’s graces by giving Him back something that He gave us to begin with?  It’s sort of like the child buying Dad a birthday present with money Dad gave her.  It’s sweet and thoughtful and all that, but from an economic perspective, it was a net zero transaction to the Dad.

And that was Jesus’ point.  And it was also the point made throughout the Old Testament, in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah.  It’s simple.  The just shall live by faith.  Beginning with Abraham, the father of our faith (you can read about him in Genesis), God has sought one thing from humankind- faith in Him.  We “earn” our way to Heaven by believing in Him.  This is what it means to be saved by grace, through faith.  God gave us a free gift in the form of Jesus as savior, and we accept the gift through faith.  It’s so simple that many people have a hard time accepting it.  Like the rich young man, they prefer to keep a running tally of their lives.  They mistakenly believe that their good works will somehow created indebtedness by God toward them.  But again, it’s impossible for God to be indebted to any human because He gave us everything that we have.  As a result, from the day we are born, we have a deficit balance in our eternal bank account.  And, like the national debt, it only gets bigger over time.

And that’s why the rich young man left, saddened.  I’ve heard some people explain that he was sad because Jesus told him to give up his riches.  He had put his money before God.  But I think it runs deeper than that.   Jesus also said, “Follow me.”  And that was the real bottom line.  If we want to get to Heaven, we have to follow Him. 

But there’s good news.  To follow Jesus, we must first have faith in Him.  We accept through faith His free gift of eternal salvation.  And once we accept this gift, He steps in.  He gives us His Holy Spirit.  He comes to live within us.   And this makes it infinitely easier to follow Him.  Faith begets more faith.  We make the decision for Him and we begin to see its result manifest in our lives.  We are changed.  We become more like Him.  And the change reinforces our faith.  We stop living in our own effort and we rely on Him.   We study His words and we learn more about Him, which in turns results in more and more of this remarkable transformation that so many people have undergone.

Are there bumps and bruises along the way?  Certainly.  We will always have the free will to make decisions.  And sometimes we make the wrong decisions.  And wrong decisions have consequences.  But He is always there for us.  His sacrifice means that He does not see our sin.  Instead, He sees us as sinless.  And He loves us no matter what.

So, the rich young man either could not or would not follow Jesus.  And when the debate was over, he walked away sadly and left Jesus standing there.  But it didn’t have to end that way.  The rich young man could have embraced Jesus.  He could have stayed with Jesus.  Or he could have received Jesus’ teaching and left in jubilance, laughing and dancing. 

And the same holds true for each of us.  There is a popular Christian saying, “Know Jesus, know peace.  No Jesus, no peace.”  And this brings me to why I believe what I believe.  Jesus said that He was the only way to God.[1]  This causes some people heartburn.   “Surely, there is more than one way to Heaven,” they reason.  But I believe Jesus because everything else that He said, as recorded in the Bible, has been absolutely true for me in my life experience.  Every single day of my life, His version of things has been validated in my life.  A Man who lived two thousand years ago still speaks to me through his words.  And He speaks to me through His Spirit. 

I’ve wondered what happened to the rich young man after he left that day.  We have no way of knowing.  But something tells me that it wasn’t the end of the story.  Once you’ve seen the light, it’s pretty hard to go back to darkness.  If he was as smart as I think he was, I’ll bet he kept thinking about Jesus’ instruction.  And I’d bet that not too long after, he made a decision.

I’ll leave it to you to decide.

[1] John 14.

When I was in college, one of my least favorite subjects was Statistics.  Most Statistics classes start with the classic "five colored balls in a hat" scenario.  The basic idea always starts with a factual setup, followed by a question.   "If there are five balls, each of a different color in a hat, what is the probability that you will draw a red ball?"  Or, "What is the probability that you will draw a red ball on the first draw, and a green ball on the second draw?"  And so on.

The reason I disliked Statistics is what I'll call the "exceptional circumstance."  As the professor would work through the probability equation, I couldn't help but wonder, "But what if the improbable happened?"  In other words, what if you drew a red ball every time?  Further, what if you drew a red ball a hundred times in a row?

But here's the thing.  Statistics is a theory of the probability of equally random things occuring.  If the balls are all of the same weight and the conditions of the draw are the same, then in theory, the likelihood of drawing a different color ball each time is equal. 

And that's one of the reasons I believe that God is real.  There are simply too many things that have occured in my life to attirbute to random probability.  Start with the fact that there is a planet Earth and living things on it, and especially those things we refer to as "humans".  The entire system and the complexity of life is such that, at least to me, it cannot be attributed to random probability.  I suppose its possible that humanity evolved from amoeba, but when I think about all the things that would have had to come together for that to happen, I think it's simply easier to believe that there was a central, guiding Hand in all of it.

This leads to the question of exactly who that guiding Hand is.  And again, it's a Statistics question.  If I read about that guiding Hand and the description repeatedly and accurately reflects my own experience, then I'll most likely subscribe to that viewpoint.  For me, the Bible repeatedly and accurately reflects my own experience.  And so, I subscribe to the Bible's characterization of God.

One of the key characterizations of God in the Bible is through Jesus.  Jesus, His followers and the contributing writers to the New Testament clearly believed that He was God.  

Of even greater interest to me is how Jesus is described in the Old Testament.  The Old Testament is filled with prophecies of the coming Messiah- the One who would save mankind.  I won't go into the details here, but  these prophecies start in Genesis, and repeatedly occur in Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel and the writings of the other prophets of the Old Testament.  The words are chillingly accurate in the description of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. 

If you haven't ever studied these prophecies, I would encourage you to look into them.  But when I read them and think about them in terms of probabilities, I find them leading to the single inescapable conclusion that Jesus was, in fact, God. 

Christians will tell you that Jesus was sacrificed for the sins of mankind- yours, mine, and everyone else's.  This raises the issue of my second-least favorite subject-  Math.  I hated Math as a kid and today, I use a calculator to perform mathematical functions- sort of an exquisite revenge for all those years spent sweating over a Math book, instead of being outside playing ball.

Assuming that you do believe that Jesus was God, this sacrifice may raise a couple of questions for you, nonetheless.  The first question is "Why do my sins even need to be paid for?"  A lot of people ask themselves this question.  They reason that their lives, in the balance, are pretty good.  They do more good things than bad things.  They always try to do the right thing.

But if you believe in God, the fallacy in this thinking quickly becomes obvious.  God created you; He gave you life.  God created the Earth and everything in it- the resources, the intelligence that developed those resources such that we are able to enjoy them.  God gave you everything you have (or at least the capability to get it).  So, you owe everthing you have to Him.  And because of that, even if you've led a perfectly sinless life, it would still be difficult to completely and perfectly pay Him back for it.

But let's face it.  You haven't led a perfectly sinless life.  I know that I haven't.  So, the truth is that you can never pay God back.  Which means, in the grand scheme of eternity, you are in a perpetual deficit relationship to Him.  Now throw a little sin on top of it.  Think Adam and Eve.  God gave them everything they needed, but it wasn't enough.  Instead of simply trusting in Him, they trusted in the serpent.  They bit the Hand that fed them.  And if I'm honest with myself, I quickly realize I've led a pretty rotten life, if I define "rotten" as living in a way that is counter to God's will for me (which is again, defined in the book that I subscribe to, based upon its validation of my life experiences- the Bible). 

This leads to the second question. How can one Man pay for the sins of all of mankind?  How can the spilled blood of one Man avoid the deserved spilling of blood for every man, woman and child ever born?

In this case, the math is simple.  The blood spilled of that Man wasn't of a man.  It was of God.  And it was the same God who created everything, including the men, women and children for whom He willingly shed His blood.  One drop of His blood is of infinite value.  And the fact that He shed all of it ihas to be more than payment enough for the blood of all of His creatures.

God created me and you.  He assumed human form and lived among us.  Through His life, He taught us about His true nature and how we should live.  Mankind, originally a perfect creation, has fallen, and to use infomercial vernacular, "can't get up."  Jesus, through his life and death helps us up.  We are forgiven, once and for all.  It's what Christians call "grace"- unmerited and undeserved favor.   He does it for each and every one of us.  We, through our lives, were headed to eternal separation from God (how can a perfect God coexist in eternity with imperfect creatures?).  But He intervened.

And here's the thing.  This grace leads us to respond in gratitude to Him.  Once we realize that He has forgiven us, we begin to want to act like He did and be like Him.  And over time, we become like Him.

Do the math.  It works perfectly.

I recently posted a quick story on Facebook about an incredible woman that I ran into recently.  I found myself somewhat stranded on a bike ride with my two little girls in the park and desperately in need of some help.  One of our bikes had gotten a flat and we needed to get back to the main entrance, about a half mile away, so that my wife could come get us.  The woman was jogging along and found us in our somewhat helpless situation.  She could have kept jogging.   She was right in the middle of her workout.  But she didn't.  Instead, she stopped and helped us.  She carried the bike back to the park entrance.

I'm pretty sure that she was a Christian.  We didn't talk much but her actions spoke much louder than her words.  Her human nature would have told her to keep on going past us.  After all, she probably had worked all day and was desperately in need of a run.   She seemed to be very fit, so I would imagine that she really relished her exercise and felt a bit guilty at not continuing.  But something selfless in her emerged.  Something in her caused her to not do what was likely in her nature, but instead to do something that was supernatural. 

The human condition is, at its core, selfish.  We want.  We need.  And we put us first.  The supernatural condition is to get past this.  It's to move from "me" to "you".  And that's exactly what this woman did.  The interesting thing is, that my Facebook post prompted a number of responses from my friends, with similar stories.  And the protagonists in these stories were either self-described Christians or missionaries.

I'm not saying that only Christians can be selfless.  I'm just saying that selflessness isn't really a human trait.  And it's interesting to me that in these stories, the common thread appeared to be Christ.  Of course, I'll never know for sure.  I can't see into anyone's heart.  I can only make assumptions, based upon  their behaviors, in a circumstantial way.

At the end of my post, I assured my friends that as to this random act of kindness, by a complete stranger, I would "pay it forward."  This phrase has gained popularity recently for who knows what reason.  But I find it very fitting in these circumstances.  Kindness begets kindness.   But it also reminds me that the only way anyone could ever deduce what I believe is as a result of the way I act.  If I act selfishly, they will conclude one thing.  If I act in an unselfish way, it will likely lead to a different conclusion.

Certainly, there are plenty of non-Christians who might have acted the same way as this woman did.  But they would have done it for a different reason.  Perhaps they would have considered it the "right" thing to do.  Or maybe they are simply good people who have high moral standards and try to live their lives the best way that they can.

But I believe this woman acted the way she did because she knew that it was the way that Jesus acted.  And she believed that He would have wanted her to act this way.  And His Holy Spirit provided the tools to do so.  And at that moment, with her having helped me and my children out of an extremely bad spot, I would have done just about anything for that woman.  But she didn't really need anything from me.  And so, I decided then and there, that I would "pay it forward."

And that's one of the common threads in Christian faith.  Jesus acted unselfishly.  Even the secular, historical literature acknowledges this.  But Christians believe that Jesus took unselfishness to a new level.  He died so that we don't have to.  He bore the punishment for every sin ever committed.  He reconciled humanity with God.  He didn't defend Himself.  He knew that His death was a necessary part of God's eternal plan for mankind.  He allowed Himself to be crucified.  He did if for me.  And He did it for you.

To a non-Christian, it must all sound so barbaric.  God sacrificed His own Son, so that mankind could have the hope of salvation from its sinful condition.  But the truth is that it was self-sacrifice.  We believe that Jesus was God, in a human form.  So, He could have called legions of angels to avoid this horrible death.  He could have snapped His fingers and turned His accusers into toads.  But He didn't do what His human nature wanted to do.  Instead, He allowed it all to happen.  The Creator of the Universe allowed His creatures to beat Him, torture Him, humiliate Him and kill Him in a slow, agonizing way. 

He did it because He knew that it was the only way, to address the problem of sin that accompanies the free will that He had purposefully built into to his creatures.  It makes sense to me.  After all, how interesting would it be to create a world of robots that I programmed to do what I wanted them to do.  That seems pretty junior league for Someone who created everything.  Instead, I think I would create humanity with free will and the power to choose.  And I would do it because I would know that ultimately I would arrange for this incredible self-sacrifice.  I would know that some of my creatures would respond that that sacrifice, out of free will, and in gratitude.  And that response would determine truly who my creatures were. 

And we would all pay it forward.