Without God and Without Hope in the World

Sitting around the labor and delivery unit at the hospital last week left me with much time on my hands. That meant I could do a lot of reading (praise God), but sometimes I forgot my books at the hotel. That meant I had to choose from the L&D's woefully understocked library. The choice pics I had to decide between were either the LaLesche League's publication and the Ladies Home Journal.

When no one was around, I picked up the Ladies' Home Journal and found an article about Katie Couric. I'm always find our nation's icons to be interesting, so I began reading. I pretty much assumed that Ms. Couric was without God, but I found that she is without hope in this world too.

Part of the article took up the topic of Ms. Couric's late husband who seems to have died from cancer. The author asked if the couple talked about his prognosis and the immanence of his death. Couric responded with the following,

You know, this is one of the big regrets I have. I sort of made a decision that I was going t protect Jay a little bit, because I didn't want him to spend whatever time he had left without hope....I always thought Jay's quality of life would have been so much worse if he had felt that there was such a small chance of survival. (LHJ, October 2005)

This couldn't be a more succinct affirmation of a "under the sun" worldview: Death isn't a subject you talk about much because there isn't anything that will bring a smile to your face. To the spiritually blind, death brings clouds of despair. To the believing, death is a subject much studied, meditated upon, and even (to a degree) rejoiced in.

In reading this my delight in knowing that "He who believes in [Jesus], though he die, yet he shall live" is mixed with sorrow over other's unbelief and resulting misery.

"Night is coming."

John 9:4

Satan Likes the Status Quo

After that last post I was reminded of what we studied in our CS Lewis study last night. The under-demon, Wormwood, exults in the fact that WWII has started. But Screwtape tells him not to put too much hope in a war, for

"If we are not careful, we shall see thousands turning in this tribulation to the Enemy (that is God)...How disastrous for us is the continual remembrance of death. One of our best weapons, contented worldliness, is rendered useless."

All this is to say, the trauma at VT is not in vain. Though the VT administration has failed miserably to offer hope, I am quite sure that pastors and Christian counselors are doing a good deal of ministry. Death is on people's minds and people will need answers.

It also reminds me of what one of my professors said in seminary,

"I'd rather officiate a funeral than a wedding. People at a wedding are only concerned with what the bride's mates are wearing. People at a funeral are ready and willing to listen to the gospel."