The View from Here

Rhetoric about open-mindedness and tolerance aside, everyone has a worldview. A creed. A set of I believes. Our worldview is the lens through which we see and understand everything, and nothing passes into our minds without first passing through it.

I don’t often wax philosophical on this blog. The “view from here” I express is usually nothing more than an amusing or touching anecdote–something that I want to remember and think might interest others. But this has been a particularly meditative week for me. Tuesday was the tenth anniversary of Jacob’s drowning accident. (If you don’t know that story, I’ve written it in a book called Parting the Waters.) I’ve thought a lot this week about that summer ten years ago when my satisfied and sheltered heart became a lump of raw pain. And I’ve thought about all that has happened in the years since. So much of it good. So much of it the stuff that makes life rich and meaningful.

Some people say religion is a crutch. Only the weak need apply. If by “religion” they mean faith in the living God through Jesus Christ, then I have to disagree. Crutches are for lame people. People who need a little assistance. Christianity isn’t for weak people who need a crutch. It’s for people who are much more desperate than that. Dead people who need to live.

I’d been a Christian for 23 years when our happy little world crumbled. I’d been wounded before. My faith had been tested. But I’d never known it could hurt to breathe. I’d never understood that every breath was grace. Now I do, and my life is marked by more joy and gratitude than it ever was before.

Not everyone who reads this blog shares my worldview. I like that. I can’t borrow another person’s lens, but that doesn’t mean I have to be completely blind to the ways other people see. You sit in your chair, telling your story. I sit in mine, listening. What you say matters to me. Perhaps what I say matters to you, too. Or maybe it irritates you. Or makes you laugh. I know I’m far from perfect, and I learned long ago not to take myself too seriously. You don’t have to either. But thanks for reading my ramblings and for caring. As long as you keep listening, I’ll keep plugging along, sharing the view from here.