My Old Friend Art's Second Reply...

Dear PapaPops,
To go to my mailbox and get a letter from you as I did recently can really “make my day,” as someone famous once said! You are thoughtful, and I can see in your writing a genuine desire to impart a “new lease on life” to one who might be interested. You didn’t know what sort of reaction you would get from me when you first wrote, but you didn’t let that hold you back!

Now I really never thought of you as indulging in “wishful thinking,” but I do have to admit that what you tell me from the Bible has been pretty far removed from my own concerns. And I don’t know that I’m ready yet to go in that direction.

However, I don’t mind asking whether there is still hope for me – to have a greater purpose in living than I have had, and to have real assurance about life beyond the grave? How could I, or anyone, for that matter, come to believe that there really is a fantastic life beyond the grave? How could a person such as I be sure of having a “ticket” to that “wonderful life,” which you called it in your “Open Letter” to me?

PapaPops, I surely do appreciate your expressions of interest in me and my family. But how does it happen that you could have that sort of interest in one you simply call “an old and dear friend?” You and I haven’t visited together for many years; we haven’t gone fishing or hiking together; we haven’t attended a sports event together; or anything similar! Pardon me for questioning your motives, if that’s what it is. However, I do wonder WHY you seem interested in ME!

PapaPops, to continue our previous exchange of thoughts about life on Planet earth, so many people who think about earth’s origins, just seem to accept blindly an evolutionary hypothesis. That’s the environment in which I’ve lived and pursued business and community service. However, I can’t help but look up at the heavens on a starry night, or hear the booming roar of a great waterfall and see its majestic beauty, or see a majestic mountain top, without wondering, -- how could all this beauty and power have “just happened?” Interesting to contemplate, isn’t it?

But now, perhaps it’s most important for me to think about my own purpose and destiny, in addition to admiring the beauties of creation around us. I know you are concerned, and I don’t mean to treat your concern lightly. You have been respectful toward my business career, as well as other careers that are not part of the Gospel ministry, and I appreciate that. Many people who are friends of mine are involved in them.

Didn’t you present the thought that any career that is honest, ethical, and helpful to other human beings could be called “good?” And I do seem to remember at Sunday School, when I attended many years ago, hearing about people that God or His leaders designated to be musicians, builders, designers, manufacturers, etc. If that was a part of God’s plan back in those times, I suppose it could be considered so today, too. Agreed?

Before I close this letter, PapaPops, I’d like to ask you again about that favorite Bible verse of yours, called John 3:16. I think you designated it as, “The Gospel in a Nutshell.” What exactly do you mean by that? Is it a condensation, or a summary of certain parts and stories of the Bible? Or would you call it symbolic of something? Explain, please. That verse does have a great ring to it, doesn’t it?

What about the “solid hope” that you wrote about? I do admire the way you seem to be clearly “steering by the stars” so to speak, in your assessment of the satisfaction that life can bring here and now. My life has been given to me to live, and to no one else, so why shouldn’t I look for all the pleasure that I can get? Why shouldn’t I consider that “I am the Master of my fate…I am the Captain of my soul,” as the old and well-known poem “Invictus” expresses it?

Until we write again….
Art

To the reader: If you have not followed my exchange of letters with my old friend Art, but would like to see what has preceded this present letter, just scroll down, and click on "Older Posts." You may have to do this several times before getting to the earlies letter (posted on or about 7-29-07).
-- PP