"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign..."

-----Original Message-----
From: Mrs. Bosco
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 12:00 PM
To: [a bunch of Christians, depth unknown]
Subject: Fwd: I chose #2

This one should keep us all thinking.

I chose #2, now you pick one.

This is a true story of something that happened just a few years ago at USC. There was a professor of philosophy there who was a deeply committed atheist. His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester to prove that God couldn't exist. His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic. Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever really gone against him because of his reputation.

At the end of every semester on the last day, he would say to his class of 300 students, "If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!"

In twenty years, no one had ever stood up. They knew what he was going to do next. He would say, "Because anyone who believes in God is a fool. If God existed, he could stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and breaking Such a simple task to prove that He is God, and yet He can't do it." And every year, he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor of the classroom and it would shatter into a hundred pieces. All of the students would do nothing but stop and stare. Most of the students thought that God couldn't exist. Certainly, a number of Christians had slipped through, but For 20 years, they had been too afraid to stand up.

Well, a few years ago there was a freshman who happened to enroll.

He was a Christian, and had heard the stories about his professor. He was required to take the class for his major, and he was afraid. But for three months that semester, he prayed every morning that he would have the courage to stand up no matter what the professor said, or what the class thought.

Nothing they said could ever shatter his faith...he hoped. Finally, the day came. The professor said, "If there is anyone here who still believes in God, stand up!' The professor and the class of 300 people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up at the back of the classroom.

The professor shouted, "You FOOL!!! If God existed, he would keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hit the ground!" He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it slipped out of his fingers, off his shirt cuff, onto the pleat of his pants, down his leg, and off his shoe. As it hit the ground, it simply rolled away unbroken. The professor's jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk. He looked up at the young man, and then ran out of the lecture hall.

The young man, who had stood, proceeded to walk to the front of the room an d shared his faith in Jesus for the next half hour. 300 students stayed and listened as he told of God's love for them and of His power through Jesus.

You have 2 choices:

1. Delete this and never look at it again.

2. Pass this along t o your Christian and non-Christian friends, giving them encouragement we all need every day When you choose option 2, you have chosen to STAND UP

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different:

This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking..............

Isn't it funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell?

Isn't it funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says?

Isn't it funny how everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, think, say, or do anything the Bible says? Or is it scary?

Isn't it funny how someone can say "I believe in God' but still follow Satan (who, by the w ay, also 'believes" in God)?

Isn't it funny how you can send a thousand jokes through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, But when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing?

Isn't it funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the public discussion of Jesus is suppressed in the school and workplace?

Isn't it funny how someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday, but be an invisible Christian the rest of the week?

Are you laughing? !

Isn't it funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address20list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them?

Isn't it funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me?

Will YOU pass this on? I did.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: MT2mb
To: [sign-seeking Christians]
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 12:00 PM
Subject: RE: I chose #2

This is an old classic that's been zipping around the 'net for over a decade, and carries a quaint, simple black-and-white image of the triumph of God's will/way over non-/anti-God.

It also most likely never happened; see: http://www.snopes.com/religion/chalk.asp. But it makes for a nice little fable.

In the Christian world – and even in the early Christian community – we see that many people turn to God seeking a sign that something is/isn't so or to be. While this practice is more common among the evangelical Protestants, it's certainly not unknown among the Catholic and Orthodox as well.

The subtext, though, when you look at it, is a lack of trust in God. The beautiful devotion (mostly Catholic) to Jesus as the Divine Mercy focuses specifically on trusting in our Lord, and is noted for the simple, humble phrase, "Jesus, I trust in You". The whole concept, and embracing it – as Catholic or Orthodox or Protestant or agnostic – is worth much consideration, thought, and meditation.

Even during the years of His ministry, Jesus was faced with shallow, distrustful sign-seekers; see Matthew 12:38-40 – here Jesus bluntly points out that the only sign to be given to "an evil and unfaithful generation" (as much our own as his) was to be "the sign of Jonah", a metaphor of His death and resurrection… and thus our redemption. What more sign do we need that He's in control?

(I saw a bumper sticker a few years ago: "If God is your copilot… switch seats!")

Let us keep our eye on Him, and our trust more on His redeeming grace, and less on petty, mundane demonstrations of (non)breaking chalk. Nor is there any dichotomy between science and faith, either – science confirms the order and structure and wonders God has placed in our universe; faith is our standing in awe and appreciation of it, and then saying, "Thank you."

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Mrs. Bosco
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 2:25 PM
To: Aging Child
Subject: Re: I chose #2  

Gene,

     I did not mean to send you off on a religious rant. You need to seriously contemplate a monastic life of prayer and theological research. I think you would be very content.

Mrs. B 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: MT2mb
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 4:03 PM
To: 'Mrs. John Bosco'
Subject: RE: I chose to...

Good afternoon, Ms. B:

Believe it or not, my buttons don't push very easily, thank you, ma'am [doffs hat politely]. I sent my note back up through the send-to list… with the intent not to rant, so much as just to encourage a bit more spiritual thought on everyone's part (especially my own!). Thus no criticism intended, of course, even of the message itself.

Nor are you in any kind of need of spiritual deepening! You were raised well in the faith, and practice/live it beautifully, with indeed a ready trust that I myself am still working up to (i.e., "duc in altum", and all that).

Still, we both know that there are some sincere folks out there who, with perhaps a cautious, judicious nudge, might find their own perspective of the spirit quite able to widen beyond some of the teeny-tinier stuff.

Have a great weekend… and if you're out near here, swing up to her rehab facility and give my mother a happy hello!

Always,

Gene