Whirlwind Tour to India

Dramatic irony. That's all I can say about my experience in India. Such poverty yet so rich a culture... the look of underdevelopment yet buzzing in high-fidelity technology. Then there was the anachronistic elephant working beside a bulldozer beneath a monorail bridge. Who'da thought? And I was only there for three days!

Many thanks goes to so many of you, family friends, who made this trip possible for Juliana and me. What a blessing you are. Thank You!!!

In an attempt to provide a sense of what happened, I have invited Jules to write on this blog site about her seven week journey in India. As she gathers her thoughts, it seemed appropriate to post a couple of pictures from our trip while we wait. Cheers!

Knowing God

I have often heard people ask "How do you know that God actually exists?" It's a fair question; so long as those who ask are not simply putting up a smoke screen to avoid a genuine confrontation with finding a real answer. But that's not for me to judge.

So... how do we know that the idea of God is not just a mind burp from man's desire to make sense of the world around him? As I was thinking about the idea of knowing God, I remembered a talk from an astrophysicist who was discussing the study of light particles. He indicated that the very act of putting light under a microscope causes the particulate to move. Like a magnet that pushes against it's polar opposite, the mere act of trying to study the thing moves it; the instrument of study affects the environment so that the particulate can only be observed (from an objective point of view).

Whether this is a correct understanding of what I heard or not I cannot judge since I am not a scientist. But, to the extent that there is some truth to this study of light, I find an interesting correlation to the idea of "knowing" God--studying the facts of His existence. On a personal level, my life-experience and faith informs me that God does indeed exist. Not because I can prove "Him," but for the same reason I believe light exists. I don't need to understand the properties of light to know that it is all around me. In the same way, the moment I try to get my mind around the idea of God--to study Him in an effort to understand Him--I find that He becomes elusive, forever moving under the microscope of my finite mind.

Perhaps this is what keeps me pursuing Him. It's not that I don't believe facts about God are important. I do. But knowing about Him and actually knowing Him are two entirely different things. If I have learned anything about light, it doesn't ask me to believe or study it's existence. It just IS and gives me the benefits of its existence whether or not I think it exists. I wonder if the same might be true about the existence of God. Maybe it's not so important for me to know all the facts before I believe. Maybe it's more important to rest in the thought that because I am known by God, it's okay to simply bask in the light of all that is good about life; and in this experience know that He IS.

"In the beginning the Word already existed. the Word was with God and the Word was God... He was the source of life, and that life was the light for humanity." (John 1:1, 4.) [GW version of the Bible]

Interesting thought from Thomas Merton

I was reading an excerpt from Thomas Merton that I thought was worth repeating; especially for those of us who think ourselves to be spiritually minded folk. I share this not to stimulate guilt (we all have enough of that to go around) as much as to encourage deeper reflection on the kind of life God is inviting us into; a life of hope and peace and fun and freedom. A life that says what we are looking forward to rather than one we are afraid to lose.

He writes:
"They [many Christians] are careful to avoid sin. They respect God as Master. They are not really interested in Him except to insure themselves against losing heaven and going to hell. In actual practice, their minds and hearts are taken up with their own ambitions and troubles and comforts and pleasures and all their worldly interests and anxieties and fears. God is only invited to enter this charmed circle to smooth out difficulties and to dispense rewards." (Spiritual Classics, Richard Foster p. 19)

For those who consider themselves Christian it is my hope this causes deeper reflection on our motivation for being so; to let go a little more of the control we try to assert over our lives. For those who are spiritually minded but not necessarily "Christian" it is my hope that you can appreciate the tension Christians often live with in their lives as they seek to be authentic in their motivations.

So What do you mean by AxisPointe?

The name derives from the idea that the earth spins perfectly on its axis at an average of 23.5 degrees; the perfect tilt, spin speed and distance from the sun enable the earth to sustain life as we know it. In the same way, Jesus Christ Himself is the "Axis" of all life—everything physical, spiritual, mental and emotional finds its perfect center in Him. He IS the "Pointe" in that He is the truth people claim to want (John 1:3-4; Colossians 1:15-17).

Having said this in the midst of a relativistic culture, I am fully aware that there is a lot of push back to the idea that Jesus is indeed the Axis of life. But what if He was/is? What if truth could be known? What if God as Jesus presents Him could be known? How would that change the way we think? What sort of ideas might emerge around lifting up Christ as THE AxisPointe worth discovering?

These are questions I think are worth exploring in a world that is so out-of-balance. So if there are spiritually-minded thinkers, doubters, dissenters or skeptics out there who wish to engage with intellectual honesty... go for it.