Visit with Bill

Visit with Bill
Rev. Clevis O. Laverty

“That’s pretty deep stuff, Reverend.”

This observation was made by a man nearly eighty years of age whom I visit frequently, a pastoral call that I enjoy. There is nothing very complex about Bill. He is in very poor health; it infuriates him. He is near death; he accepts the fact. When I call he loves to lean back in his easy chair, light his pipe, and turn the conversation in a direction that will lead to a superficial theological discussion. He is a man of unwavering faith and feels that he is thoroughly at peace with God.

On this particular visit he steered the conversation around until it arrived at a point where he could ask me how I as a preacher could be so sure that there is a God; not how I could convince him because he knew. I thought for several minutes, Bill is in no hurry in this game of stump the preacher, and told him that I could think of about three reasons, off-hand.

The first one must be lived rather than proved, that belief in God is a characteristically human experience. It is natural and normal for people to seek after Him. While this desire is not positive proof, it is strong evidence. Look at other human urges. We hunger, there is food; a sex impulse, we have mates; there would not be this urge to find God unless there were a God to satisfy it.

The second reason is the kind of life that comes from a belief in God. It is true that not all great men were Christians, but it is true that they were all rooted in a religious faith. The people whom I know that face calamity, suffering, and adversity with the greatest poise are those to whom faith in God is vital. When you meet one of these people your own doubts fade.

In the third place I would go to the sciences. Those who attack the authenticity of the Bible from the standpoint of evolution provide me with the clearest evidence. For me or anyone else to assume that all these things about us evolved from stardust to amoebae, to man, to Jesus just by accident is stretching the imagination beyond its elasticity. I can only agree with Tennyson, “Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs.”

I settled back in my chair just a little bit proud of the on-the-spot sermon, but still on the alert for whatever bomb Bill might choose to drop.

Bill puffed a little on his pipe, winked at me and said, “It’s pretty deep stuff, isn’t it reverend?”