Sadly a 22 year-old Angels pitcher named Nick Adenhart was killed along with a few others in an accident a few days ago. Standard DUI hit and run, where the guy was driving with a suspended license from a previous DUI incident. Does suspending licenses really stop such accidents from occurring? I don't have any solutions, like caning or anything, but man it's a shame.
One fill-in host for the Collin Cowherd (sports talk) show tried to stay positive about this sad incident. He said the only thing a "positive" person could take from this was simply to find your passion and do it everyday. Somehow this can provide fulfillment and overcome the uncertainty of life?
I guess what really bothered me the most, is not that he didn't say, "Well I guess I should become a Christian because I never know the day or the hour I could be taken, and I will bow my knee to Jesus one day, either it will be as a heaven-bound believer or a hell-bound unbeliever."
I guess what I really hoped for was a slightly less self-concerned, less self-absorbed question of what life is really about. I realize that people are incredibly existential (no ultimate reality, just your own existence) but I was hoping for at least a deeper existential question like "Are my passions really worth it? Have I missed something completely? Do my passions really fulfill me? Is fulfillment found in giving rather taking?"
I mean the dude from Into The Wild was not a Christian but he wrestles with quite deeper existential questions that do find answer in the gospel.
The fact that such shallow and self-centered conclusions are being reached amidst a confrontation with our own mortality ought to concern everyone. At some point, Christians really need to answer questions that are being asked ( if it's security, eternal fears, fear of future, significance, feeling judged, etc...).
But there is also a place to ask questions that haven't been raised as well. A confrontation with our own or other's mortality may (I know this dude is not a representative for everyone, but I doubt he's in the minority) not simply raise the same questions I think it used to raise. It may take Christians raising them to their friends.
1 comment:
Following one's passion or dream could leave one empty and hopeless. Reminds me of the line from the Peggy Lee song, "Is that all there is?" Pretty empty. Unless....the passion one follows is God-driven. I mean, God gives each of us gift/s--passion/s. It is not wrong to follow that passion when it is God-directed for then one is using it for God's glory and not simply one's own pleasure. Personal fulfillment in following one's passion is a perk, a side benefit of a life committed to God. G
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