"One of the greatest proofs of a supernatural reality is that we can even ponder one." -CS Lewis
I grew up in a tennis playing family. Both of my parents were decent country club players and began encouraging my brother, sister and I to play at a small age. Even as we switched schools and moved around the country, the sport remained a constant part of life during most of our childhoods. We all played in high school and at three different small colleges at the NAIA level. As a little kid and even in high school I had big dreams of being a superstar someday, playing for a NCAA school, playing on the ATP tour and even beating Boris Becker one day. However, it only took a brief foray into the world of top-level collegiate tennis to realize that this would never even be a remote possibility for me, namely due to a gross lack of talent and athleticism, amongst many other things. I don't play anymore but do look back fondly on the large part of my life it played - mainly the many friends I made through it as well as the life adventures it provided me. I got to travel around the country while playing a collegiate sport and also developed certain athletic skills that have proved useful in many other athletic endeavors. I still hack it up at family get-togethers with my folks (who have their own court and still play) about once a year, but that's about it these days. I'm pretty sure my mom beat me the last time we played.
Throughout high school I was in a week-to-week battle with one other guy for the #1 spot on the team, during the intermittent times that he was able to remain academically eligible. Admittedly, he was probably a better player than me, certainly had a much "bigger" game, and ended up doing way more with his tennis career than I ever did. But I usually could get in his head and therefore beat him almost every time I played him. So even though I was the official #1 on the De Soto High School ladder, both my coaches and I usually mutually agreed to let him play the top spot against other schools, especially if they had a top ranked-player, knowing he'd have a better chance of beating them than I would.
The other guy's name was Michael and I've lost track of him over the years and have no idea where he's at now. He indeed had a big game and often an even bigger on court John Mcenroe -esque temper. He was often prone to profanity laced outbursts directed at everyone from his opponents (including me), his doubles partners, coaches, fans, watching parents, and pretty much whoever happened to be in the vicinity at the time. Like Mcenroe himself, the level of his game usually increased with his volume, which kept watching coaches and fans from being to hard on him, until a coach challenged him that if he felt the need to include someone else's name in his outbursts, he should probably choose someone other than Jesus Christ. He took the challenge to heart, and eventually settled on Rock Hudson - I think because at the time it had just been revealed that Hudson was gay and was dying of AIDS. For Mike, it seemed like a good name to "blaspheme" at the time. Over his last two years of high school tennis, he became known throughout our entire district as the "Rock Hudson guy", because his many profanity laced outbursts became laced with "Rock Hudsons" in every vulgar way you could imagine. Even while playing on another court, I could usually tell his match success based on the number of "Rock Hudsons" flying around. It became so entertainingly silly for many, that even our greatest rivals would look forward to watching and playing against us, just for the comical value of watching the "Rock Hudson guy" alone.
All this sounds silly, right? Throwing some guy's name around in ways to express frustration and anger? The next time you feel such need, give it a good old "Confucius", or "Gandhi " or "prophet Mohammed" or even a "Buddha damnit" and see if it does anything for you. You'll probably feel silly after you've said it, and everyone around you will think it's weird or even comical. There's just something powerful that gives you that satisfying feeling of "oomph" after saying the name of Jesus Christ in anger ....or some sort of inexplicable fearfulness or embarrassment when using it in a good way, or when advertising anything in a positive way that relates to Him.
Try this experiment for yourself: Grab a big overtly - labeled Holy Bible and walk around downtown Dallas (or anywhere) and see if you don't feel overly conscious about it, especially if you bump into non-Christian friends. It's just a book, right? Turn on some praise and worship music at your next office party and see how you feel - it's just music right? It's more comfortable to hear lyrics about murder, death, sorrow, broken relationships, or about anything else other than about the person of Jesus Christ. Start casual conversations, even just in a completely historical context about the person of Jesus Christ and see if it doesn't shut everyone up or get them upset or make them uncomfortable. Try the same with Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed, Brahma, the Bab, Joseph Smith, or even Adolf Hitler and no one really cares. The truth is, there is an objective reality going on outside of ourselves that is more powerful than we are and has a greater influence on the outcome of our actions than we do. I think the thought of this for non-Christians must be scary, so absolutely terrifying, that it must be (at the least) kept at bay by trying to ignore it, or at worst, attacking against this reality that they inherently know, that they can FEEL is there and represents some sort of truth. The same gay-rights activists who angerly protest, boycott and organize "kiss-ins" at Chick-Fila restaurants because the owner says he supports "the Biblical view of marriage" will never bother to boycott or protest against Shell or Exxon gas stations whose oil is owned, drilled, and sold by Saudi Arabian Islamasists who say (and actively support) that homosexuality should be punished by death.....because the reality is that there is no real power, no unseen force behind the accusation that homosexuality is wrong from an Islamic stance, but an incredible conviction brought on by the inferred accusation that homosexual marraige would be "unbiblical."
The second we force ourselves to acknowledge all this is the second we realize we ultimately can't adequately explain our lives or have control over our own existence, acknowledging that we ultimately belong or are ultimately in submission to the whims and power and desires of something, or even Someone else. The problem for non-Christians, I believe, is not unbelief but intentional disbelief in a reality that they know... they can FEEL is true. They can't convince their own hearts of the anti-truths they want to believe, anti-truths that keep them in comfortable control of their own lives and destinies ...so they try to distract themselves with enough activities or thoughts or chemicals to remain happy enough to exist in their own self-created delusion. They reject what they know in their hearts to be true and attempt to create a new reality in which they have authority over their own existence, and attempt to live it out in a way that validates their new reality they've created. An attempt at intentional self-deceit, if you will, but the problem still remains that the alternate reality that they refuse to believe is indeed an OBJECTIVE one that is real, and is much more powerful than any existence they can attempt to create for themselves, because the truth is, the Creator and Director of the reality we cannot see is also the Creator and the Director of the one we can see. His name is Jesus Christ, and even as you read all this, I'm pretty sure you're feeling and thinking things (anger, resistance, fear, disgust, conviction... love?), beyond anything you can explain in a purely physical or natural sense, or beyond what you normally should be when reading any oped or blog or commentary, even if it was one that you disagreed with greatly. These are just words on a page, right?
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