On the Inside

After so many years being a part of the college campus–meeting students, counseling them about everything from their majors to good professors to deeper personal struggles about identity, spirituality, or purpose–I still find myself amazed at how much goes on inside of each person. What you see isn’t what you always get. People think the darndest things on the inside. Sometimes it’s innocent, “That guy’s hair is so lame.” And other times, things are a lot darker as people struggle with stress, depression, addiction, or hopelessness.

Some seniors and I were talking in the wake of last week’s Gracepoint Monthly and one brother’s life story. One of the senior guys shared that he had no idea that this brother had gone thru so much hurt, pain, and loss, and he was utterly unaware of its magnitude or depth. The application, we all agreed, was that you just never know each person’s story. And in the absence of such knowledge, we often neglect to treasure or care for the people who need it most in our lives. It made us take stock of our relationships and friendships, and then consider the gospel’s exhortation to care for one another and live a life of love.

It’s good advice.

One might even say wise. And others, well, they might say that’s just the truth about how things are.

Reason for Belief in an Age of Skepticism

Tim Keller came to Berkeley several weeks ago and gave a lecture at Wheeler Hall, drawing most of his points from his recent book, Reason for God. He’s senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. There’s been book reviews all over the board, some really good and others rather tepid. Personally, it’s a rather persuasive, winsome book pitched at the educated who are firmly planted in the urban cultural and social ethos of the day. Recommended.

The next day he went to Google and talked there. The video (on Google) is worth watching and will you a good idea what the book feels like:

Why it sounds that way

There’s a story I like, of a man minding his business, digging in a field with a shovel he borrowed–a field, I want to note, that wasn’t his (which raises a red flag). Whatever he’s looking for, he stumbles on something which, at first blush, causes him to throw all the dirt back in again. Difficult to ascertain if he found a drainage pipe, a nest of fire ants, treasure, or none of the above.

He ends up running away in joy. It’s an odd sort of reaction and depends entirely upon the thing he found when he was digging. It feels like a delirium of sorts because after running from that field, he takes everything he has and sells it (the Macbook Pro, the Canon SLR, the Civic, the desk he’s had since senior year of college, and even the pair of jeans he was planning on throwing away), purchases that same field, and thereafter is never heard from again. Presumably he thought that whatever he had found was worth all he had.

It’s the looking, finding, running, and selling all I find incredibly intriguing. In a lot of ways, it’s what I do all the time in my life. It’s what I see people in our world doing: finding someone to make much of, finding that job or internship, finding a parent they never knew, finding something. And people go running, sometimes screaming, and sell all they have for that thing. Sometimes, it’s finding something that might not be worth everything, but is still worth selling a lot, be it time, friends, family, emotion, energy, you name it.

The story in question comes from the book of Matthew. The storyteller is one who fascinated his hearers. Frankly, he continues to fascinate. And he, in large part, is the reason why I chose Looking, Finding, Running.