Minutes of Meetings with God and with Myself
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The Unifying Question ...

Questions ... questions ... questions ... and more questions. Big questions and little questions ... important questions and trivial questions ... avoidable questions and unavoidable questions ... hard questions and easy questions ... honest questions and dishonest (loaded???) questions ... direct questions and indirect questions ... questions ... questions ... questions??????? Among the questions that people have asked me lately ... directly or indirectly ... are: Will all the people of the world who have never heard of Jesus be condemned to hell and eternal punishment? What will I have to do to really live the life that Jesus lived and wants me to live? What will it mean and what will we need to do for our church to really grow? Should I go to Haiti on a mission work team? Is the United States going to hell in a bucket? As a Christian, what should my attitude and feelings be toward people who are homosexual? Will you do my wedding? Will you do my funeral? Will you baptize my children? Why would anyone use the "InterNet" to randomly distribute child pornography ... knowing that they would get caught? What does it mean to spread the Gospel? Faith in Jesus as the Christ or works of kindness and compassion ... which is most important? If I divorce and remarry, what does that do to my relationship with God ... with the Church ... what does that do to my discipleship or any ministry that I feel called to do? Do you trust any of the politicians ... who are you going to vote for? Do you think that the people of "Brand X" church (not either of the two churches I serve ... thank God) will ever quit fighting with each other and their pastor and once again become an important witness to Christ in our community? What will happen when I die? Can you help me ... all my creditors want payment now ... or the rent is due ... or the utilities are about to be turned off ... or there is no food for the children ... and, for a very good reason, I don't have the money to pay? Things in my life have taken a terrible turn ... do you think it will all work out for the best? These questions came from folks at church, from clergy colleagues, from folks in the community. They are all good questions ... questions that are worthy of good answers! And I wish I had all the answers ... good answers ... but I don't. I am seeking answers, too. It is probably best if we recognize that we are all seekers ... we are all looking for answers ... we are somehow looking for "The Answer" to our biggest question: "What is Life ... what is my life ... all about anyway?" A person, Corrie Ten Boom, has at once been helping ... and complicating ... my seeking. Lately, I've been reading her book, A Tramp for the Lord, which is something of her autobiography. Corrie Ten Boom was Dutch ... and, during World War II, she (with Betsie, one ofher sisters) was imprisoned in the Nazi death-camp, Ravensbruck, because her family hid Jews in their home in Haarlem, Holland. Most of Corrie's family (including Betsie) died in prison or in death camps ... but a week before Corrie was to be executed, she was released from Ravensbruck because of a "paperwork" error. She was "saved." Corrie Ten Boom spent the rest of her life, more than 30 years, traveling the world and sharing the Gospel as she had experienced it ... she could say to anyone: "... there is no hell so deep that he [Christ] is not deeper still ... " because she had been there and had found Christ there. The time that Corrie spent in the death camp changed her perspective on life ... she looked less and less at things from her point of view ... and she looked more and more at things from God's point of view. She looked less and less to her self and her wants ... and she looked more and more to God and to what she experienced as that which God wanted for her. Corrie had a simple faith ... the Risen Lord is always present and will always work all things for good ... but hers was not a simplistic faith ... she knew first hand about evil and cruelty and destruction and death. She traveled the world, often with only what would fit in two suitcases ... convinced that our Lord would take care of her as long as she looked to see Him wherever she was and she shared His Gospel. As I have been reading Corrie Ten Boom's life and witness, I have found myself re-evaluating some of the questions that I ask of myself, of others, of the situations I find myself in, and of God. Repeatedly, Corrie found herself becoming aware that she looked at almost everything as if she were the center of the universe and as if what she wanted was the most important thing ... rather than as if God were the center of the universe and that what God wants is the most important thing. I am realizing that, because of my own self-centeredness, I do not often enough ask the most helpful questions. I do not ask ... "How must God see what is happening here?" or "What must God want for this person or this situation?" or "Where do I see Jesus in this person or in this situation?" or "What would Jesus do if he were here? Rather than asserting that "Christ is the Answer!" Perhaps, the Risen Lord is "The Big, Unifying Question" that leads to all the answers? Christ, the one who seeks us ... and seeks our answers with us! At one point Corrie reminded herself: "To travel through the desert with others, to suffer thirst, to find a spring, to drink of it, and not tell the others that they might be spared is exactly the same as enjoying Christ and not telling others about Him." Seems pretty important ... doesn't it.