Dr. Rosalind Picard “is the founder and director of the MIT Media lab’s Affective Computing research group, where she teaches and mentors students in research.” This, according to the MIT website. She is an inventor, having over a hundred patents. Rosalind Picard is also a Christian, professing her faith in God and Jesus Christ. She became a believer only after a great deal of thought and research.
In a Christianity Today article she writes, “I once thought I was too smart to believe in God. Now I know I was an ignorant fool who snubbed the greatest Mind in the cosmos – the Author of all science, mathematics, art, and everything else there is to know. Today I walk humbly, having received the most undeserved grace. I walk with joy, alongside the most amazing Companion anyone could ask for, filled with desire to keep learning and exploring” (Christianity Today magazine, March 15, 2019).
Dr. Picard is far from the only scientist to express faith in God. Another I’ll mention is Dr. John Lennox, professor of Mathematics (emeritus) at the University of Oxford. He holds degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge and is a frequent speaker on the interface of science, philosophy, and religion. He has a multitude of videos on YouTube where he engages in intellectual, philosophical, and scientific discussions and debates with others about his belief in God and being a follower of Jesus Christ.
Religious faith is unfortunately often characterized as anti-intellectual, childish, or a crutch. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s not in the same category as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the tooth fairy that we jettison belief in when we grow older. Great scientists including Blaise Pascal, Isaac Newton, Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and George Washington Carver believed in God. A contemporary scientist, Francis Collins, who invented positional cloning, was involved in the discovery of the genes for cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease and directed the National Human Genome Research Institute for 15 years, is a follower of Jesus Christ.
Author Alistair Begg writes, “Christianity calls its followers not to neglect their minds but to critically engage them… To follow Christ, then, is not to take a step of blind faith into the darkness but to have your eyes opened to the light of rigorous truth” (Truth for Life, April 24 thought).
Back to Dr. Rosalind Picard’s article. She writes, “I work closely with people whose lives are filled with medical struggles, people whose children are not healthy. I do not have adequate answers to explain all their suffering. But I know there is a God of unfathomable greatness and love who freely enters into relationship with all who confess their sins and call upon his name.”
A person who decides to believe in God doesn’t have to put their head in the sand. Brains and belief can go together!
“’Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord…” (Isaiah 1:18a, ESV).
I take a daily morning walk up the rustic path above our home at Refuge Ranch in Mexico. I frequently meet a local farmer. He’s almost always wearing a white cowboy hat and white shirt, which makes sense. It reflects the harsh sun at our 7,500 feet altitude. He commutes to his field on a horse, a white horse. He’s old, but probably not as old as I think he is, undoubtedly weathered by years of working out in his field.
With his white hat, white shirt, and white horse I’ve wondered, could he be the Lone Ranger retired? After fighting all those bad guys in the wild west of the United States he’d probably feel safest retiring in Mexico. He doesn’t wear a black mask, which would, ironically, keep him from being identified. Okay, I’ve let my imagination run rampant so I’ll reign it in (pun intended).
My farmer friend and I say “buenos dias” when we meet, though he says “buen dia” which is the shortened version many native speakers use. One day recently, while walking my morning path, I heard a whistle and turned in the direction of the sound. He was waving his hat in greeting from a distance.
I think we bonded when, a couple of years ago, his horse bucked him off after we had just passed on the path. I ran over to him. He was lying flat on his back on the ground, but he was okay. I retrieved his white hat a few feet away and proceeded to try and chase down his runaway horse. I gave up when the horse was out of sight, probably well on his way to the nearest small town, Cuecuecuautitla. After recovering for a couple of minutes, the man got on his feet and started making his way in the direction his horse had fled. I was relieved a day or two later to meet him on the path with his horse.
The farmer (alias, Lone Ranger, maybe) and I have this interesting friendship, limited, to be sure, but enjoyable for both of us nonetheless. It exists despite a world of differences, including language.
Part of God’s calling for all of us is to reach out to others. This includes those close to us, most of all the people who will cry at our funeral. But every day there are more opportunities than we recognize to connect with people in passing. This includes the clerk in the grocery store, a neighbor getting the mail as we get ours, and someone climbing out of their car as we get out of ours. I’ve been fortunate to have established several meaningful friendships with fellow coffee drinkers at several different coffee shops.
This is a broken, difficult, and sinful world. People feel beat up or worn down. Even cracking a smile, giving a brief word of encouragement, or lending a listening ear can mean so much to someone we meet, even someone who’s a stranger.
It was said of Jesus that he went around doing good. What a way to intentionally live every day! God can use us as his channel of goodness into the lives of those who cross our path.
Such an approach to daily living will brighten up our day as well. We are blessed when we seek to be a blessing; blessings boomerang!
The guy I meet on the rustic path I walk may not be the retired Lone Ranger, but he’s a delight to encounter anyway. Though we have trouble communicating I’m convinced he feels the same way about his encounter with me.
“…He [Jesus] went around doing good…” (Acts 10:38)
“Honesty is the best policy” is a proverb that’s been around for a long time. Sir Edward Sandys, an English politician, is said to have used it in 1599. George Washington used the phrase in his farewell speech as president. Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin also used the phrase.
Most of us have learned, sometimes the hard way, the truth of the proverb. Honesty in business is crucial, and even more so in relationships.
When it comes to the most important relationship we can have, that with God, honesty is most certainly the best policy. We may be dishonest with people and get by with it, at least for a while, but God knows everything, so dishonesty with him never works.
A key to being close to God involves being honest with God. One aspect of being honest with God isn’t too difficult, and that’s when we’re honest about our thoughts and feelings. It’s safe because God won’t likely boom forth from the sky telling the world our innermost thoughts and feelings. So this is a good thing to do, but there’s more to being honest with God.
In healthy human relationships, we frequently have to be honest with the other person and admit we were wrong or that we did them wrong. This also applies in our relationship with God. Let me put it more bluntly. A healthy relationship with God involves the confession to him of our sins. This is not likely something put forth by New Age spiritual teaching, but the Bible is unmistakably clear on this.
Confessing to someone that we’ve wronged them and asking for forgiveness is never easy. But there is something that makes it easier and that is when we’re fairly certain the person will forgive us. Again, the Bible is unmistakably clear: God is more anxious to forgive us than we are anxious to ask for forgiveness. We don’t have to be afraid to confess to him.
It’s God’s forgiveness we need if we’re to establish a relationship with him. The key message of the Gospel is that Jesus is to be our savior, meaning he can save us from our sins. But we need to confess our need for him to be our savior. It’s the starting point for a relationship with him.
A relationship with God isn’t established by achieving a certain level of moral performance; we could never achieve that. It’s established by a simple confession that we aren’t who we should be and that we’re asking for his forgiveness. It’s only by his grace and mercy that we can have a relationship with him.
There is this once-and-for-all-time asking him to forgive us and be our Savior from all our sins past, present, and future. But it is also vital in order to have a healthy relationship with God that we regularly ask for forgiveness, for sins both known to us and unknown to us.
I will say that in all my years of being a follower of Christ, I’ve not experienced confession as a negative experience, but positive, for it brings me closer to God. Honesty is the best policy, and honest to God living is the best way to live. I recommend it.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Joni Eareckson Tada was 17 years old when she became a quadriplegic after breaking her neck in a diving accident. Few of us can imagine the struggles and adjustments she faced. Now in her 70s, over 50 years later, Joni has impacted millions of lives because of her disability through her organization, Joni and Friends, and her books, speeches, music, and art. She shared in an article appearing on the Desiring God website ten words that changed everything about her view of suffering.
The ten words were part of a conversation that took place with a friend, Steve Estes, when she was newly released from the hospital and barely out of her teens. The ten words?
“God permits what He hates to accomplish what He loves.”
One of the age-old questions is why a good God allows pain, disappointments, suffering, and death in His creation. We all have our reasons for asking the question, just like Joni did.
It’s helpful to ask our questions in the right way. Joni writes, “I wasn’t asking with a clenched fist, but a searching heart.” So should we.
It’s also helpful to resist the temptation to blame God. Yes, God is sovereign and in ultimate control of everything, but it’s obvious he permits things to happen of which he does not approve. Again, we ask why.
It shouldn’t surprise us that we can’t always figure out what God is up to. After all, he has infinite knowledge and wisdom and we don’t. Somehow, in his perfect ways, he can use the hurt in the world, and what’s hurting us, for good.
The most grievous example of human suffering was Jesus’ execution, God in the flesh dying on the cross. Yet, this horrible injustice resulted in the greatest expression of love and provided the way for God to save people for eternity. It’s the ultimate example of gain from pain.
In Joni’s case, God has used her pain for much gain. Steve told Joni, “He [God] wants your affliction to be a platform to win others to Christ.” Now, over 50 years after her accident, Joni rejoices in “being used of God at Joni and Friends to save lives by telling people with disabilities the good news.”
Yes, God has his plan and purpose for everything we face and whatever we’re going through. He also is willing to be with us as we grow through it if we let him. Tim Keller, who died from pancreatic cancer, wrote in his book, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, “Suffering is unbearable if you aren’t certain that God is for you and with you.”
Let’s reaffirm those ten words that changed Joni’s view of suffering. “God permits what He hates to accomplish what He loves.”
A scripture Steve Estes shared with Joni Eareckson Tada: “Though he [God] brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone” (Lamentations 3:32-33).
Note: The article by Joni can be found at www.desiringgod.org. Search “ten words” to access the article.
The solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, was an amazing cosmic event witnessed by millions. The perfect alignment of earth, moon, and sun provided a spectacular display. We knew it was coming. It was so predictable, that’s why people made plans, some starting a year before, to be in the path of totality and experience the brief few minutes of a total eclipse. So predictable was the solar eclipse that a newspaper headline after an eclipse in 1970 read, “Millions See Eclipse, Next Showing in 2024.” So predictable are solar eclipses that we know the next one that will be visible in all 48 contiguous states will happen on August 23, 2044.
Solar eclipses are only one cosmic phenomenon among innumerable others that are predictable. The regular, cyclical alignment of the stars has been observed far back in human history. Modern space travel depends on the exact measurement of the movement, force of gravity, and other factors of the earth, moon, sun, and other planets. The cosmos is like an unimaginably large and infinitely complex clockwork.
There are essential laws of cosmology that govern the universe. Getting down to earth, there are laws of physics we live with every day, like gravity (dropping a glass and it falls and breaks) and momentum (sending a bowling ball down the alley toward the pins). A conclusion many of us have reached is that such laws mean there’s a lawmaker, God.
The amazing display of a solar eclipse is just one reminder that God runs a minutely controlled universe. He’s in control of everything! The fancy theological word for this is that God is sovereign.
To be sure, it looks like a lot is out of control in this world. People do crazy, wrong things. Evil and sin exist. God could have made us puppets or robots to mindlessly do His bidding, but He didn’t. He gave us the freedom to make choices and so things often go badly. Even the natural world is broken, with accidents, disease, weather disasters, and the earth’s crust shuddering and erupting in earthquakes and volcanoes.
Yet, as rampant as evil and sin are and as broken as the physical world often is, it is all ultimately under the control of God. He uses it all in frequently mysterious and wonderful ways to carry out His good and perfect purposes.
We can all come up with instances where good came out of bad. Such examples, though they often seem few and far between, should remind us that God works for good to come out of bad! He is in ultimate control, down to the details. A solar eclipse is a sacred reminder of this great truth. This means that whatever is going on in your life or mine, He knows, it did not catch Him by surprise, and He has a plan, and it is good!
Job, after all his suffering: “Then Job replied to the Lord: ‘I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted’” (Job 42:1-2).
I enjoy watching a well-known and popular American astrophysicist explain difficult concepts about science. I came across a video of his in which he shares how he views his eventual death. It was interesting because he’s an atheist and doesn’t believe in anything beyond this life.
He explained that we weren’t around the eons of time before we were born, and we won’t be around after we die. He’s decided, therefore, to see this life as very short and special and to make the most of it.
Mmmm. I find it difficult to grasp how a person can fully embrace this life if you know death is the end of it all.
It would be like taking an ocean cruise, knowing the vessel was going to sink and all souls on board lost at sea. I enjoy writing fiction, so let me flesh out this scenario just a little.
A cruise ship begins taking on water and loses all communication and propulsion in the most vast, open area of the ocean. The captain announces, “The bad news is that the ship will sink in 24 hours and there’s no way of communicating a mayday for us to be rescued. The good news is that there’s plenty of food and drink. The full slate of entertainment will continue up until the band plays as the ship sinks below the water’s surface. We hope you enjoy the next 24 hours!” It doesn’t take much mental effort to imagine the mood on the ship.
Now imagine another cruise ship. It’s heading to a posh resort where everyone will have the time of their life. The captain announces, “We’ll arrive in 24 hours. There’ll be some rough seas in the next few hours, but be assured, your crew and ship will bring you safely to shore.” The mood on the ship would be quite different from that of the vessel disabled and sinking on smooth seas with no destination but oblivion.
Which ship are we on in this cruise of a lifetime? Is there life beyond the cruise or not?
My favorite American astrophysicist would argue that there’s no proof of a God or life beyond this life; we must make the best of what we know we have for sure – this life. I suspect he would also argue that you can’t just make up a fantasy belief in God to feel better and give you hope of life after death. He would be right. We shouldn’t embrace a fantasy belief.
I’m writing this just a few days after Easter. Fresh from celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, I wouldn’t call it fantasy. Ancient documents dating back to within a few decades of 30 AD claim to be factual and eyewitness testimony and accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. These documents include the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then there are the letters written by the apostles Paul and Peter, and others.
I count myself among those who find these accounts to be accurate and true. When it comes to the two ships, one dead in the water with only death to look forward to or the other promising life beyond the present voyage, I’m boarding the second ship.
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die’” (John 11:25).
There are events in life that are life-altering. I can list many such events, starting with meeting my wife Diann for the first time on a Sunday evening in a church in Annville, Kentucky, where we both spent the summer working in Christian ministry. Then there was my graduation from seminary, being accepted as pastor of a church in Toledo, Ohio, the birth of our two children, and, well, that’s enough of a list from me.
How about you? Now I’m going to lose you as you read this sentence, because I’ve prompted your reflecting on life-altering events in your own life. When you’re done reflecting, join me in the next sentence. Let’s reflect on a life-altering event in the life of a guy named Tom. He was one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, so we know him better as Thomas. In fact, we know him best of all with his expanded name, doubting Thomas.
The adjective “doubting” frequently precedes his name because He just couldn’t bring himself to believe Jesus was alive, that He had risen from the dead. This was in spite of the fact that some women reported having encountered Jesus at His empty tomb early Sunday morning. Then there were the two disciples who excitedly told of meeting Jesus on their way to Emmaus later that day. That Sunday evening all the disciples, except for Thomas, were gathered in a room with a locked door when Jesus appeared in their midst.
Thomas heard the good news of Jesus being alive from all directions, but just couldn’t bring himself to believe the seemingly impossible. He insisted he wouldn’t believe unless he could see the nail wounds, touching them and the spear hole in Jesus’ side.
A week later Thomas was with the other disciples. You’ve got to give him credit, Thomas hung out with the others, though he lacked having the most important thing in common with them, a firm belief Jesus had risen from the dead.
Then Jesus appeared in the locked room with them. He singled out Thomas, extending the doubter the invitation to put his hands to His wounds. Thomas didn’t need to carry through with his previous demand to see and touch before he would believe. He joined the others in their belief.
With multiple proofs of Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples’ lives would forever be changed. They spent the rest of their lives proclaiming Jesus to be Savior and Lord.
How should Easter impact us? Philip Yancy writes in his blog about a friend of his who explained her faith to a skeptic. The skeptic’s response was, “But you don’t act like you believe God is alive.” Yancey then writes, “I try to turn the skeptic’s accusation into a question: Do I act like God is alive? It is a good question, one I must ask myself again every day.”
I agree. You too?
The exchange between Thomas and Jesus when Thomas was confronted with the resurrected Jesus. “Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” (John 20:28-29)
I’m part of the downsizing generation. Instead of accumulating more, many of my generation are divesting themselves of material possessions, often moving into smaller homes. That’s why a statement I heard a speaker make impacted me. He said we downsize God.
His statement that we downsize God prompted the recollection of a small book I read years ago by J. B. Phillips, Your God Is Too Small. His book, and I believe reality, shows that we create an idea of God from our thoughts and experiences that make God way too small.
Phillips says we can see God as the resident policeman. We were told as kids that God is watching, and we’d better behave, giving us the idea that God is our conscience, watching us to make sure we’re good.
God may also be little more than a parental hangover. Our idea of God often has its basis in how our parents treated us, especially our fathers. We can have a difficult time relating to God as Heavenly Father if our earthly father was nonexistent, distant, or abusive.
The grand old man is another way we can picture God. In fact, God is often pictured as a white-haired old man. I’m old and have white hair and beard, but I’ll be the first to admit we shouldn’t be viewing God as an elderly man with declining health, strength, and faculties.
Phillips lists other views of God that are ways of making God too small, but this is enough to give us the idea that he’s right. We downsize God, always conceiving of Him far less, infinitely less than He really is.
We ought to be supersizing God! I hesitate at even using the phrase, knowing it conjures up an image of an extra-large serving of fries. In addition, we’re not making God bigger or better in any way. He’s already infinite in all good ways. Still, we need to supersize our idea of God.
We are always imagining God as too small because we can’t fully imagine Him as He really is. Consider the universe He has made and sustains, both the macrocosm and the microcosm.
Looking at the macrocosm, there’s an estimated 2 trillion galaxies with an estimated average of 100 billion stars each. Looking at the microcosm, one of the smallest particles is the neutrino, much smaller than the electron of the atom, trillions of which pass through our bodies every second. Not one neutrino in one of the 100 billion stars in one of the 2 trillion galaxies is outside God’s sustaining, controlling presence. He certainly has no trouble giving each of us His full attention.
It’s because we’ve downsized God that we have difficulty believing He loves us, is all wise and just. It’s because we’ve made God too small that we struggle to trust Him, worship Him, and put Him first in our lives. It doesn’t have to be this way. Supersizing our idea of God can make all the difference!“Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all” (1 Chronicles 29:11).
I have been writing a weekly inspirational article since February, 1977, for 47 years. That’s around 2,350 articles. Those articles have covered a lot of subjects, included a great many stories and a few jokes, but always a single verse of Scripture at the end, and something of God at the center of it all. If I had only one more article I could write I’d want it to be something like the message that follows – that’s how important this subject is.
Everything exists because God brought it into existence. The idea that everything came from nothing, or has always existed, seems more preposterous than to believe in God who exists beyond time and space having created it all.
God is not only creator but sustainer, running everything in an orderly fashion, which we observe as natural laws. However, if He wishes to intervene and do something differently, He is perfectly capable of doing so. We call these out of the ordinary events miracles.
Those of us who hypothesize the existence of God (having faith that God exists) see His active engagement in the affairs of human beings. Throughout human history there are many reported accounts of God interacting with the human inhabitants of earth in a loving and just way. Some of these records are in what we call the Bible.
God’s greatest initiative of relating to us humans was when, at a specific time and place, He came to earth in the most astonishing of ways. We celebrate this at Christmas when we are reminded of God coming to us as one of us, being born of a young woman without benefit of a man’s participation. God with us, God in the flesh, describes Jesus for many of us.
The mission and achievement of Jesus was not in being a great teacher, moral example, or even miracle worker. His intention was to die on a cross. Good Friday reminds us of this. He did this to save us from all that’s wrong and sinful about us and make us right with God.
Being God, Jesus didn’t stay dead. He rose from the dead. This is what Easter is all about.
Jesus was a great teacher (which is almost universally embraced), and one of His key teachings was that He was God’s Son, God in the flesh, sent by the Heavenly Father. He also clearly taught that people were to follow Him, yielding their lives over to Him. He promised that this was the best of all ways to live and the only way to have life forever with God. In short, He calls people to accept Him as their saving One and their Lord.
What I’ve just shared is either true or it is not. Either, as the Christian thinker and writer C.S. Lewis put it, Jesus was a liar, a lunatic, or He’s Lord. We all must decide. Even not deciding is a decision. As I’ve said before, there’s not enough evidence to compel belief, but there’s enough evidence to make belief compelling!
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
I have a favorite coffee mug, purchasing it years ago from a potter on the backroads of rural America. The handcrafted coffee mug has held untold gallons of coffee over the years. Most of that coffee has been consumed early morning during what I call my quiet time. While I sip the black brew, I read my Bible. It’s the routine I follow to start almost every day.
I figure hearing from God the first thing in the morning is better than viewing and/or listening to the news on TV, radio, or some app on my phone, tablet, or computer. The good news (Gospel) of the Bible beats, hands down, the bad news of the media. Yes, I catch the news later. But I find that if I get input from God first, I’m in a better place to deal with what’s going on in the world, including my own little corner of the world.
After some input from God, I talk things over with God. This makes it a two-way communication. There are several purposes for this dialogue with the Divine.
First, and foremost, I’ve come to understand that He wants this dialogue with me, that it pleases Him, for which I never cease being amazed. I’m not suggesting I’m someone special. I have it on good authority that He’s just as pleased to have the same arrangement with you.
Second, it’s very helpful to me. His message to me from His Word can be a real encouragement, and I need that! Time with God also gives me an opportunity to bring my needs, and those of others I know, before Him.
Third, spending time with God like this makes me a better person, more the person He wants me to be. It helps me see myself as God sees me, and where I can make positive changes.
I find this coffee time with God to be of such value that I can’t help but recommend it to others. You don’t even have to like coffee. Maybe for you it’s teatime with God, or orange juice time with God, or whatever.
I’d recommend finding an easy-to-read Bible translation. You may prefer reading from your phone or tablet (as I often do). A popular suggestion is to read through the Gospel of Mark. It’s the shortest of the four Gospels. Most translation subdivide the chapters of the Bible with bold headings into smaller sections. I find reading just one of these short sections at a sitting to be more doable, sustainable, and impacting.
When it comes to talking with God, just begin by telling Him what’s on your mind, what’s concerning you, what you’re grappling with. To establish some balance concerning the content of my conversations with God I’ve been helped by remembering the acrostic ACTS.
The A stands for Adoration (complimenting God, praising Him for who He is and what He’s doing, has done, and can do).
The C stands for Confession (being honest about my failures, shortcomings, sins).
The T stands for Thanksgiving (being grateful is one of the best ways to face life in a positive, faith filled way, and God most certainly deserves the thanks).
The S stands for Supplication (meaning to ask for help, for what I need, even for what I want, and to do so on behalf of others for whom I’m concerned).
My special coffee mug got me to thinking about all of this. You don’t need a special coffee mug; you don’t even have to like coffee. It’s the time with God that matters!
God says in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
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