Update #5.6 - One Last Indy Story

"Oh, man. This isn't going to end well..."

"What? What isn't?" Alan was looking around, but couldn't see what I was talking about.

"Don't worry, you'll find out right about....... now!"

Sure enough, just as I said that a young, bespectacled African American lad tried jumping both a row of bushes and the steep ledge below them on his bike. The result: PAIN.

"Ohhhhhhh! Ow! Mmmmmmmmm! Yup. Mmm hmmm.... Man! That kills!" Our needy friend was jumping up and down and running around in circles, doubled over and clutching his mid-section all the while. He tried getting back on his bike, but then seemed to decide it was a better option to just drag it along.

"You gonna make it?" I asked, somewhat playfully. He was in pain, there was no question, but death was not imminent, I was confident. "Uhh.... Yeah.... In a minute maybe. Mmmmm!"

After another minute of hopping around, superficial comforting, etc. I decided to take the conversation up a notch, "So what do you suppose is going to happen to you if you really crash one of these times - I mean, head out into the street in front of a car or something and die?"

"You just die, I guess."

"Really? So you don't think that there's any sort of life-after-death? When we die, there's nothing else?"

"Well, I suppose there's a lot of stuff that I'd like to happen, but I know that it won't."

"Like what?"

"Like, when I die, I'd like to just have peace, you know? Go to a place where I can just sit in peace and hang out with friends and stuff, but that won't happen."

"Why not?"

"Because I smoke. I smoke marijuana." This was an easy thing to believe given the general cadence (or lack thereof) to his speech. Indeed, recent exposure was not out of the question.

Though perhaps not surprised by his answer, we still weren't sure how to tackle it initially. "Well, don't think you have to giveup on going to Heaven just because you've made a mistake or two in your life. We're both Christians and that's the whole beauty of the Gospel - it's for flawed people like you, me, and even Alan here. We've both made our mistakes and done unwise things, but God tells us that if we acknowledge our mistakes and come to him and trust in him to help us through our mistakes, then he will save us and give us eternal life with him."

Our friend, Jared, listened carefully, but didn't seem to really understand. Maybe it was because he didn't care; maybe it was spiritual blindness; I'll write it off to his smoking, which is exactly what he came back to. "Wait. I'm confused. So if there was a law about to be passed legalizing marijuana, would you vote 'yes' or 'no'? Now be honest."

Seriously? I was on to much more important issues and he wanted to come back to that? Very well. I gave him my answer which is probably not what he expected to hear, but he was not satisfied with it either.

"Oh man, that's unfortunate. So you don't get high; ever done any drinking?"

"Yes actually, but I've never been drunk," Alan chimed in. These really weren't the issues that either of us wanted to be discussing, but maybe there was hope of pulling it back around if we stuck with it.

"Man, I just can't understand people like you. Man, I've been to so many parties it's crazy. I'm from California, and like all I did in high school is party. But I suppose you've experienced a lot of stuff by not partying that I could never experience and I've experienced a lot of stuff you couldn't." Okay, here was a glimmer of hope.

"Yeah, I suppose that's definitely true."

"Yeah, like I ran away from home for six months in high school and lived with the hippies on the beach, and we went from city to city in a school bus, and they would play music to make money, and sometimes we would be stuck in a place for like two weeks because we didn't have any gas and stuff, but we didn't mind because we weren't really going anywhere. But you guys could never understand wanting to do something like that."

Couldn't we? Oh, if only he knew where we spent last night! In none other than the back of my Jeep Liberty (both for the experience and to save some money; don't worry, we found showers at a nearby truck-stop)! "Actually, that definitely sounds like some crazy thing we might do. We're on a road trip right now, going from Birmingham, Alabama to Chicago. We're stopping along the way to tell people about God and about Jesus because we think it's the most important thing anyone can ever know in life. So a road trip down the California Coast isn't really too far off from the kind of thing we might do."

"Yeah, that's really cool. You know, I went to a Catholic School because my uncle was a priest and they told me some about the Bible and that kind of thing, but I couldn't really understand it, because we read a part about not making any images of animals or worshipping idols or something, but I think Jesus on the Cross is an idol, man! And Mary, and praying to all the Saints, and that kind of thing. I mean, it just doesn't make sense to me how they can say 'don't worship idols,' and then go pray to some statue of Mary."

Finally! We were back on track! "You know, that's very, very true, and we agree with you completely. But those parts of Catholicism are not Christian at all. I should say that there are Catholics who are Christians, but Catholicism itself is not very Christian because, even though it claims to understand Christianity, it misses the central part."

"So what makes Christians different from Catholics?"

"Well again, some Catholics are Christians, but the central idea is grace. That's a very important word; the most important one in the world, in fact. It means that all of us screw things up but that God saves us anyway. It means that you and I can't save ourselves or help ourselves or make our way to God on our own. Because we've all done bad things, we've been separated from God and he has to fix that. So he sent his Son, Jesus, to die for all of the evil things that we do, because someone had to pay the penalty. And then Jesus conquered death and came back to life so that, if you and I believe in this that I'm telling you right now, then you and I can conquer death and live forever, too. Now we still have to die a bodily death, but then we have a real hope of living in Heaven after that. Catholics often don't understand that you can't get to Heaven on your own works, by just being good or something, so that's what makes Christianity unique over all of the other religions." Alan nodded his assent and Jared sat and pondered for a moment.

"While I've got a Bible that I read every now and then, and it talks about how the world is going to end and stuff, and I just think that some of the sort things it says might be happening right now."

"Well we're told that when Jesus comes back, he'll be like a thief in the night and no one will know the hour that he's coming, but trust me, no one will miss it when he does," Alan offered.

"Yup. We're told that the clouds will roll back and the very foundations of the Universe will be shaken. No one alive will be able to mistake what's happening, I'm confident," I added.

"Oh man! Then tons of people are going to be looking up and saying, 'Holy s***, this is bad!' But I bet other people are going to be saying, 'Oh yeah, man! This is what I've been waiting for!' "

"That's exactly right, and we just want to make sure that you're on the 'Oh yeah, man!' side and not the 'Holy s***!' side when it all ends. Whether you die first or the world ends first, at that point the discussion is over and you're stuck with whatever side you're on."

We exchanged a little bit further, encouraged him to read the Bible he said he had, gave him a couple of verses to look at, and gave him a CD of Richard Dawkins and John Lennox discussing belief in Christianity at Trinity College (he had asked for one). Then we both went our separate ways.

What happened? We don't know and maybe never will. Typical of yesterday's experiences, there was a lot of "potential" in the conversation, but no end that we could see. Seed planting; or weeding; or watering; or all three. This appeared to be most of our work yesterday, but there was still something very exhilarating (if exhausting) in our discussion with Jared. This was by far the most extensive and laid out discussion of Christianity that anyone had received from us yet, and I hope that something in it stuck.

--Michael Taunton