The Dude, a Governor, and Cramped Aircraft Seating

I've had some terrific plane flights of late.  Obviously, since we're packed in like cattle with only tiny windows, it wasn't the flights themselves, but the people that I met on those flights--folks that you "meet along the way." (T.D. Jakes)  Three people really stood out--a spry 86 year old man who professes to love women, a 23 year old recovering addict, and a non-practicing Catholic woman.  The 86 year old man was returning from Aspen.  Two of his daughters flew out to Aspen to surprise him--they obviously care deeply for their father.  The 23 year old was coming home to see his family after several months in rehab, and he was so excited about seeing them.  The woman spoke lovingly about her children, and how she and her Jewish husband were raising them.  Each person expressed hurts, but also a belief in a supernatural being which intervened in the affairs of this world in a good way.

The 86 year old began our conversation by joking that he was an odd Alabama graduate since he liked women more than Alabama football.  It came out that he currently has a 70 year old girl friend and that he has been divorced since age 50.  After having told me about his love for women (and we agreed that most men have polygamist tendencies), he told me "out of the blue" to stay with my wife.  I told him that Debbie and I had just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and, thanks solely to God, were very happily married.  What had come out was his enduring love for his first wife and his regrets over his divorce.  His love for her trumped any polygamist tendencies.  When I asked him about religion, he said that, at age 12, a preacher told him that, if he would accept Jesus as his savior, he would be spared from Hell and that he would stop sinning.  He told me that he stopped sinning for two weeks, but that when he returned to sinning, he knew that the preacher had been lying to him.  However, he believed that there was a supernatural "governor" which kept humanity from destroying itself and the world.  So, he believes in the depravity of man and the necessity for a supernatural being to restrain the consequence of man's depravity--very profound thoughts.

I was praising the 23 year old man for his success in rehab.  He told me that it really wasn't him that was successful, but a higher power.  He told me that AA teaches that you are incapable of changing, incapable of conquering the addiction, without the intervention of a higher power.  He said that they told him that he can give the higher power any name that he wanted, so he chose "the Dude."  He then told me that he loved to cook and was seeking a degree in restaurant/entertainment management at UofA.  However,  he was concerned that that dream was over given that his addiction had prevented him from obtaining his college degree.  I asked what he was doing, and he is cooking in a restaurant, because it is what he knows how to do and enjoys.  He was concerned about taking a job at a restaurant given the prevalence of drug use in that industry.  However, the Dude had given him a boss who was 14 years sober!  He saw it as a "god-thing."

Finally, the woman and I were discussing God, the church, and grace.  She told me that her husband is Jewish, so they were trying to determine whether to get their children involved at a church or synagogue.  I told her that, from my reading of the Bible, it is all about understanding that God is a god of grace towards sinful man.  I told her about one of my best friends who believes that God is gracious, even though my friend lost his 13 year old brother to a brain tumor.  She then told me that she had lost one of her brothers at age 13, as well, and had recently lost a nephew at age 10.  She said that we were the ones to be pitied, since her brother and nephew were both in a better place.  She and my friend have true faith!

These remarkable conversations were convicting.  These non-church-goers all believed in a supernatural power that intervened in this world for the good of mankind.  So many of us in the church tend to discount the views of people who are not church-goers.  We tend to think that God loves the church-goers and not others.  But, Jesus never rebuked the non-church people.  Instead, he continually rebuked the church-goers.  What's more, if Jesus is calling upon us to "love our enemies," He certainly can do no less.  He can't be calling upon us to do something that He is not doing.  Accordingly, Jesus is loving non-church-goers.  If only we church-goers would do likewise.