Published on 10/24/2006

Commentary

I will be driving very carefully this morning, lest I get pulled over by a policeman for any reason whatsoever. If I do, he or she may smell the beer in my car and not believe my explanation. Let's see if you do.

Last night my son Craig and I were at Texas Stadium for Monday Night Football between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. Due to the great generosity of a very good friend, we were sitting on the 50-yard line, 20 rows from the field. Two guys next to us were drinking beer during the game. Lots of beer. Let's just say they ran out of game before they ran out of beer. One of them dropped his bottle to the ground with some left inside. It sloshed out over the concrete where we were standing and got all over our shoes and feet. We put Craig's sandals in the trunk; I drove on a piece of cardboard; we kept the windows down all the way home; but our football neighbors' gift remained with us. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Too absurd not to be true, right? You can't make this stuff up. The truth is often that way. For instance, this morning's Wall Street Journal tells us that a woman who wants to plant 400 trees in the worst part of San Francisco has been ostracized by the area's residents. They want to keep their community the way it is so pimps, drug addicts, and prostitutes can have places of their own. The Journal isn't kidding (it seldom does).

The same issue informs us that scientists are now backing off their conclusion that there is no life on Mars. Turns out the instrument designed to detect organic life in Martian soil was flawed. Maybe Martians are watching us right now. Maybe they played defense for the Cowboys last night. Making things worse, the Journal reports that Barry Manilow is going to have his hip replaced. Now I feel both paranoid and very old.

Historians don't like to trust reports of past events which are apparently not repeated today. If people don't walk on water this week, many don't believe Jesus did. If people don't feed a crowd with a tiny lunch, or raise the dead, skeptics doubt that Jesus did. The idea that a crucified carpenter could rise from the tomb and spark the largest spiritual movement in human history seems absurd. But that's a good reason to believe it's true.

Would early Christians have made up such incredulous tales? There are more plausible ways to tell the story. The fact that God's Son entered our sinful condition, died for you, rose for you, and is praying for you right now seems too absurd to be true. That's why it is. Have you thanked him today for getting beer on his shoes for you?