Newspaper Columns by Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Look at life’s signals
By Bishop Paul V. Marshall
June, 2004There are, indeed, atheists in foxholes. War has made cynics of many. The ability of a species to kill and maim its own kind makes it difficult for some people to see a kind Creator behind our life.
I know others, however, for whom war was the gateway to belief. One was a combat infantryman in Italy, a member of a platoon of New Englanders who prided themselves on their foul language, abusive behavior, and other crude acts of macho self-assurance normal in times of stress and fear.
He and his buddies were outraged when, after sustaining some losses in combat, their Yankee outfit received from the replacement depot a Texan who brought a Bible with him. They were waiting to heap abuse on him if he spouted religion, but he did not say a word. They were still upset by his presence. They did everything they could to get him to surrender his quiet manner.
When they went into battle, he and his buddies were as terrified as one might appropriately be in a situation where people are trying to kill each other. Their anxiety came out in the usual brutish ways. Their newcomer, however, remained calm even when things were at their worst.
My friend said he could no longer deny that this stranger had something he did not have. For selfish reasons alone he had to “look into this God business.” The rest has been a sixty-year adventure of faith.
Since hearing that story I have been looking for a parallel in my experience.
It occurred to me that there is also a person in my life who is immersed in the peace that God gives. By any standard he is among the most intelligent, charming, and wise people on the planet, and produces uniformly excellent work.
He is also utterly without ambition. He has rejected numerous invitations to the top and still accomplishes a great deal.
After I had known and admired him for several years I got in his face a bit about this. I asked him very directly why, when he is a natural for positions most of us could not even imagine occupying, he has not seized his opportunities and become the genuinely great personage he could easily be, with all the rights and benefits that come with that status. I have been chewing on his answer for months.
He said quietly, “I discovered how much influence a person can have when they don’t care who gets the credit.”
It takes a great deal of personal security to make that statement. It takes enormous commitment to the betterment of human life to say it. It totally redefines success. More than that, it illustrates to me what human beings can be and do when they are willing to live into the fullness of peace.
This is why I remain a believer. Jesus promised his followers peace, adding quickly that he did not mean peace in the ordinary sense of cessation of hostility, but the kind of peace that comes from knowing that one’s life is entirely secure in the worst of circumstances. That is not a matter of positive thinking, but of trust that the God who raised Christ will see us through any of the challenges of life or death.
There is only one way to find out if this is true, of course, and that is, as my friend in Italy put it, to look into it. Who gives you that signal in your life?
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