A Wooden Response to Real Faith

Spirituality Column #188
June 15, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

A Wooden Response to Real Faith
By Bob Walters

In the small-city, American innocence of my youth in the 1960s, it seemed that everybody went to church.

To my recollection nobody talked much about Jesus Christ but “Where do you go to church?” was a socially acceptable, non-invasive inquiry. God was at church, everyone went to church, everyone understood God was God, and God was good.

Of course, we didn’t go to church in the summer. We rode our bikes, played ball, and went swimming. We went to church during the school year.

And in school I learned that in 1776 our nation declared its independence in no small part because people “are endowed by their Creator (capital C) with certain unalienable Rights.” It made historical sense to recite daily the Pledge of Allegiance, facing the American flag as “one nation under God” (no comma).

How surprised I was to learn years later that the Pledge was relatively new (1892, Francis Bellamy), and “under God” was really new (1954, President Dwight Eisenhower). “In God We Trust” on our paper money first appeared in 1957, having been adopted officially as our national motto in July 1956.

Given that era’s bristling Cold War with the Soviet Union, the motto was a “purpose pitch” promoting American values like God and freedom. Some dismissed it as mere propaganda against godless Communism, but so what? Communism was a horrible idea, horribly applied, with horrible effect. Communism chokes individual freedom, creativity, wealth … and God.

Anyway, even today ninety percent of Americans like the motto.

So why is it that so many of us are willing, happy, even thankful, to Trust in God, while so many also blanch at any public confession of the miraculous, freeing character of redemption through the saving power of Jesus Christ?

These thoughts cross my mind when a great American like John Wooden dies. In his death, our culture reduces John Wooden’s enormous, demonstrated, lifelong, prosperous, humble faith in Jesus Christ to sports, championships and coaching.

Mercy gracious sakes.

It’s hypocrisy that all this reporting is done with an understood wink of the mass media’s eye. Everyone knows Wooden was a devout believer in Christ, and that every corner of his life witnessed to his Christian faith.

Wooden’s is what an abundant, American life in Christ is supposed to look like.

If truly “In God We Trust,” why is “Christ” so hard for so many Americans to say?

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that while Wooden wasn’t shy about his faith, the media only reports on earthly rewards.

Confusion, Mystery and Trust

Spirituality Column #31
June 12, 2007
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper

Confusion, Mystery and TrustBy Bob Walters

I grew up going to church until my mid-teens, and then spent several years – my spiritual confusion years – not going to church.

When I reconnected with God a few years ago, Christ suddenly became to me a very rich mystery and stopped being a point of spiritual confusion.

The difference was that I had learned that I was supposed to trust God.

Confusion defeats reason and trust, and picks at our rational being. Confusion is uncomfortable and something we avoid. I was confused so I avoided Christ.

Mystery, and its close sibling, wonder, however, can hold us rationally in their limitless arms with comfort and peace even in the absence of understanding. This is the gift Christ offers to us when we engage our faith and trust that He is Who He says He is.

None of this will make sense to a non-Christian, because – and I’ve been there – if Christ is so good and God is a loving God, how come this or that really terrible thing just happened to me, to my loved one, to my neighbor … to something I cherish. And why should I give my life to Christ when I can trust what I see, not what I can’t see.

Scripture says the opposite.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18, NIV).

When we pray to God for understanding, wisdom and discernment – of divine or earthly things – what we can legitimately expect from God in return is inner peace, not information. Sometimes God spells it out; sometimes He doesn’t.

But when we trust God; I mean truly give ourselves completely over to trusting Him, only then can we enjoy the mystery and wonder of His hand.

No matter what happens.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is better at writing about trusting God than actually trusting God. It’ll be OK, whether I believe it or not.

Rolling Sermonette a Hit with Hoosiers

Spirituality Column # 24
April 24, 2007
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper

Rolling Sermonette a Hit with Hoosiers
By Bob Walters

Some folks believe the wildly popular “In God We Trust” Indiana license plate is offensive, an infringement on their individual rights and will make Hoosiers a national “religious nut” laughing stock.

At least they believe something.

Perhaps they believe divisive things about U.S. currency as well, which if read carefully also offends.

“In God We Trust.” It’s the best sermonette on the roadways since highway signs first began preaching “Keep Right.”

The new specialty tag, announced last summer and offered January 1, 2007, is available for no extra charge when Indiana license plates are renewed. The Indiana Civil Liberties Union says it is unfair for one interest group to get special treatment.

God is an interest group? Note to ICLU: Good luck with St. Peter.

The Bureau of Motor Vehicles initially, crazily, ordered a half-million plates. To the undoubted chagrin of leftists, Church-State extremists, ICLU’ers, liberal commentators and leave-me-alone-about-that-God-stuff curmudgeons across the Hoosier state, more than 400,000 have been distributed (it’s only April) and another half million have been ordered.

God wants us to be kind, humble and loving. When we put one of those plates on our car, some deem us to be arrogant, backwards and endangering the Union (America, I mean).

The plates are reverent to God, not to the “Church of Me.”

For the attentive, there is great entertainment in deciphering the two-letter branch code on the plate … and likely even more fun watching the secular-or-else crowd’s heads explode when they realize all those letter combinations can actually have scriptural significance.

“J R”? How about Jesus Redeemer? “A O”? Why not Alpha Omega? “J C”? Um, that one’s easy. There are 50; and 50 more on the way. How many have you seen?

Interesting that former House speaker Bob Garton, who for years blocked the “God” plate, relented in 2006 when he was challenged for his Columbus district seat by an overtly Christian contender. The plate, with no fee attached, sailed through the legislature and Garton lost his seat to the Christian anyway.

God Bless America, and the Indiana BMV.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a Carmel resident, urges those who are squeamish about the plate to read Romans 13 for comfort.