The
only thing I do know is that I have come to know God in an intimate,
profound, and life-changing manner. My life has greater meaning, and
I can comfortably pursue science knowing that when I find truth it is
God's truth.
I absolutely love musicals, especially those with powerful messages that
speak to the heart. Wicked is such a musical, and the last song
before intermission always hits me hard. The song is entitled “Defying
Gravity.” Elphaba, the soon to be Wicked Witch of the West, proclaims
this poignant anthem with resolve and confidence. In the song she speaks
of a profound change within her, one that is characterized by a “refusal
to accept limits, because someone says they’re so.” She hopes
to “defy gravity,” to overcome everything that has oppressed
her and prevented her from truly being free. For me, this cannot
resonate more intensely with my Christian worldview. After coming to faith,
I realized that we all must free ourselves from ourselves, and not let
us “be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1, NIV).
But wait a second. How exactly are we enslaved? You do not have to search
your heart for long before you see stuff that is messy and distorted.
You see a cute couple holding hands, and consequently a quick spell of
jealously (hopefully only if you’re currently single) sets in. You
get into a fight with your parents in which you are curt and disrespectful
with absurd lines of reasoning that “justify” your stance.
You are not really in the mood to greet someone you sort of know, so you
pretend to be preoccupied and turn your eyes away abashedly.
I definitely can go on and on, but let us quickly get to the point:
we are not the people we really want to be. Why? We are enslaved by
temptation, guilt, and sin: all of which proceed from this tangled mess
of a world in which we live. Since the Fall, I would argue that sin
has run a dreadfully destructive and debilitating course. Sin has formed
itself to be a complex exaction of “logical deception,”
and falling into it seems natural – maybe even expected. Furthermore
there are many levels through which sin has compounded and permeated,
from the realm of the biochemical all the way up to our everyday interactions
with others. For example, cancer has emerged as a deadly biological
anomaly, our instinctual “eye-for-an-eye” mentality is almost
unavoidable, and many times our urges to help others are circumvented
by self-serving motives.
With all of that said, the picture appears to be grim and hopeless.
When I re-discovered the Christian faith in my senior year of high school,
I realized that it offers much hope, but not without stipulation. What
I would like to fully convey to you, reader, is that Christianity does
not consist of a restorative snap of the fingers, leading you to say:
“I’ve been saved, my sins are forgiven, it’s all good,
and I have nothing to worry about now.” In fact, the reality of
it leans heavily toward the opposite direction. I would even argue that
after becoming Christian, in some ways it is much more difficult
to live out your life. For example, overcoming temptation and sin is
something you never really thought about before, and now it
is tirelessly in your field of vision.
Nevertheless, Christianity is wonderfully encapsulated by a radical
and profound promise offered by the God-man who lived and walked on
the earth some 2,000 years ago: “For God so loved the world that
he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 NIV). This promise is
made manifest in the grace God offers to all of mankind. God’s
freely given grace for us, in my mind, is the greatest gift in human
history. It should never be taken lightly or without careful investigation.
This free gift of grace is biblically grounded, as apparent in the following
two passages from Paul’s letter to the Romans: “for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”
(Rom. 3:23-24, NIV) and “For the wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23).
When I reflect on these passages, I always come back to the song Be
My Escape by Relient K. There is a lyric that claims “the
beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair.” Face it, for
EVERYTHING that we have done wrong in our lives, do we really
deserve a free gift of grace from a perfect and all-powerful God? Not
really. Life is not fair then, because we can taste and experience
this wondrous grace that was made known to us by and in Jesus Christ.
I came to know Christ in a rather unique way to say the least. I entered
into His wisdom by means of science. This might seem a little paradoxical,
but it definitely worked strange wonders for me. In high school I came
to love science intensely; in physics I saw beauty in equations and
derivations; in biology I witnessed the high-ordered intricacies of
DNA transcription. To say the least, I was impressed and stunned at
how much this universe is goal-oriented. It is replete with purpose
and meaning, always moving forward with something in mind.
But, in whose mind does this forward motion reside? Our minds are finite
and defective, for we can never completely draw meaning nor
give rise to it by moving our will or motives. There is something
greater at work in our everyday experience, and as I have grown in faith,
I have realized that God is the mind, purpose, meaning, and truth that
I always searched for. Science pointed me to Him, but my faith has allowed
me to know Him and love Him. Because of Him, I can physically tap my
laptop keyboard this very instant, articulate the biochemical reactions
between the neurons in my brain into thoughts and beliefs, and have
you understand the assorted black patterns of ink on this page.
I will never forget one particular conversation I had with my high
school AP Physics teacher. He was explaining to me that there is a passage
in the Bible that strangely supports quantum physics. I’ll be
honest with you: I was extremely skeptical that this could be possible,
let alone true and tenable. Yet I remained patient when he showed me
this exact excerpt: “For by Him all things were created that are
in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through
Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things
consist” (Col. 1:16-18, NKJV). As my teacher explained to me,
it would be perfectly fine (according to quantum physics) if I just
ceased to exist. Because quantum physics deals with probabilities and
uncertainties, anything becomes possible. I can fall through the chair
in which I am currently sitting or if I lean against a wall, my hand
could pass right through it. In fact, there is an extant likelihood
that any of these events could transpire. But why don’t they?
“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Christ knows of every possible atomic arrangement and reaction that
could ever happen. He could will any one of them to occur if he so wished,
even one that would instantaneously halt my existence. But yet, I persist
in my existence. I continue to grow, learn and love. You cannot control
your very being, for only Christ has that power: He is the only one
who keeps your motor running.
Yet, our motors tend to run on empty. Time and again our efforts will
fail us, our faulty reasoning will blind us, and our hardened hearts
will hurt others. Before Christ ascended into Heaven, he promised that
he would send His Spirit, a Counselor who would speak into our stubborn
natures to stir within us a willingness to turn to God. The Holy Spirit
is the gasoline for our empty fuel tanks and defunct motors. He can
fill our hearts with life, love, and joy. To receive Him and have Him
effect real change in our lives, we must allow the word of God to operate
within the deepest cores of our being: “For the word of God is
living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates
even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts
and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12-13, NIV). The author of
Hebrews makes significant claims here that cannot be overlooked: the
word of God enters into the very fabric of our moral and spiritual frameworks.
After the word of God does its job, the Holy Spirit comes to repair
and stitch our frayed fabric. Our fallenness, through sanctification,
will then slowly turn into a seamless tapestry that no longer knows
sin or fear. This process is slow and arduous, characterized by suffering:
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant,
but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who
have been trained by it” (Heb. 12: 11, ESV). Above all, we must
realize that in our tribulations, God continually shapes us to grow
in His image. This is certainly the grandest telos ever conceived, but
its magnitude should never deter us. Rather, we should be humbled and
grateful to be presented with such a radical possibility. How is it
that a God so holy and powerful has made Himself so approachable? The
answer lies in the blood shed by God Himself on the cross: “In
[Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses…making known to us the mystery of his will…to
unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth”
(Eph. 1:7-10, ESV).
I certainly am not (and might never be) at a comfortable place in my
faith journey; I continue to stumble only to have God pick me up, brush
me off, and help me to continue growing in His love and truth. The only
thing I do know is that I have come to know God in the past year in
an intimate, profound, and life-changing manner. My life has greater
meaning now, and I can comfortably pursue science knowing that when
I find truth it is undoubtedly God’s truth. One of my favorite
TV shows when I was younger was the X-Files. At the end of
the introductory credits a message would flash reading: “the truth
is out there.” Looking at that phrase now I would naturally substitute
“His” for “the.” You see, reader, most times
when I wake up every morning, I strive to sustain a refreshed spirit.
I earnestly yearn to get to know God better. In that sense I will forever
be His student because, well, His truth is out there.
Richard Lopez ‘09 plans to major in psychology. He is from
Rockaway, NJ.