I Asked For Wonder

SOMETIMES WE WISH THE WORLD COULD CRY
AND TELL US ABOUT THAT WHICH MADE IT
PREGNANT WITH FEAR-FILLING GRANDEUR.

SOMETIMES WE WISH OUR OWN HEART
WOULD SPEAK OF THAT WHICH MADE IT
HEAVEY WITH WONDER

-Abraham Heschel


I used to engage atheists in arguments over the explanatory power of theism versus atheism and arguments that dealt with the existence of God. I have found much of this experience as an exercise in futility. Now my 17 year old son is getting intellectually assaulted by an atheist in several of his classes in High School. He prays, listens, and loves but he does not want to argue.
I'm proud of the faithful presence he is in our public school system which are often breeding grounds for unbelief, profanity, perversity, and the pursuit of every kind of sinful pleasure under the sun.

For people who simply believe that Christianity is an intellectually defensible worldview and if people would only understand the arguments will bring them to the truth of the Christian faith simply misunderstand that life and people often don't work that way. How many circular endless discussions, debates, and fighting rounds must people participate in to find out how fruitless this all is? How many arguments have I heard Christians and atheists use that cuts just as much against their own view as the views of the other! How many "win at any cost" and "take no prisoners" approach by both sides have witnessed the callousness of intellectual elite power plays?

In the early church, the pagans did not yell, "Look at the power of their rational arguments" but "See how they love one another." I simply refuse to play by the rationalist game rules much less in the atheist's playground. Arguments proving God's existence or philosophic sophistry that there is a God out there is not the Living God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac that I depend my life upon. So when the atheist asks me to talk about philosophy or 'proof's' or 'facts' I simply turn the conversation and ask, 'You tell me the story of athiesm and how it makes for a better world and I will tell you the story of Israel, Jesus, and the church and how that gives life meaning and hope to this world. Most athiests simply opt out of that conversation and that is fine with me too.