Mountain Lions, Earthworms and Religion: Why I am a Christian

Author's Note: The following article is a piece I wrote for my church's quarterly newsletter that goes out to 200,000 homes in Santa Clara County. Admittedly, most of those newsletters line parakeet cages or simply just go directly in people's big blue recycle bins. But a good number find their way into the hands of people who God is working on and who are interested in church. My prayer is that this column hits them. Let me know what you think, before it goes to press.



A while ago, my wife suggested one Saturday morning that we go for a walk at “The Dish” near Stanford University. You’ve probably seen it if you’ve ever driven north on 280. It’s this giant radio telescope, the kind that you might use to listen to aliens if you were in a Jodie Foster movie.

So I agreed, and we met up with a friend of hers, who we’ll call Donna, because that was her name. As we began to walk, Donna said she didn’t like walking around the Dish in twilight when there weren’t a lot of people.

“Why,” I asked.

“Because of the mountain lions,” she said.

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I’m engaging in exercise, I generally like to do it in places where the likelihood that I’m going to be attacked by a large predatory mammal is small. That’s why I like 24-Hour Fitness - very few carnivores nearby, waiting to eat me if I lag behind the pack. I suppose that would be a good incentive to train harder. I can see the tag-line now. Run Hard. Or the Wolves will Eat You.

But this is not the point of my story. The point of my story is something that Donna said on the walk. You see, at this point, my wife had recently decided to become a Christian, and she was talking to her friend Donna about this. Donna said that she was a bit skeptical of organized religion.

“All major world religions pretty much say the same thing,” Donna said. “Be nice. Help other people out. Be a good person.”

This is a line I hear a lot from a lot of different people. I think people say it because it sounds nice. It’s non-confrontational. But I think it’s like saying that you and I are the same person.

Here’s what I mean. I read an article the other day about the human genome project that mapped out the entire genetic structure of humans. Do you know that every single human on the planet is more than 99 percent identical? Almost 100 percent of the genetic information in your body is the same as it is in mine. Almost identical. In fact, I also read that humans are 75 percent similar genetically to earthworms. 75 percent.

But I think that you and I would both agree that the last 25 percent is pretty significant. And in the case of two people, that last percent – that last bit – is also pretty huge. I tried calling the bank and convincing them that Matt Damon and I were essentially the same person, but they didn’t go for it.

It’s true – world religions are similar. And there are huge common lines that connect them. But I’m going to submit that that last bit – the theology or philosophy where they differ - is crucial. And I think what sets religions apart from one another is their perspectives on what God is really like. His character. Or if God even has a character.

For example, we have seen throughout history, in our own nation, and across the world the ugliness that can result when a person believes that God likes them, but hates certain other people. I read about this one young man who strapped explosives wrapped in nails and shards of metal around his body, and then walked into a crowded Bazaar in Egypt and detonated it. People do this. Because of what they believe God wants. Because of what they believe God is really like.

That’s a big reason why I’m a follower of Jesus. Jesus says over and over again that God is his Father. And Jesus’ portrait of the character of God is so deep and compelling, that I am drawn to it more and more every day. If you get a chance, read Luke 15 sometime. It’s a speech by Jesus in which he’s trying to capture the essence of what God feels toward people – toward us. Jesus starts with a comparison, saying God is like a shepherd who lost a sheep and then rejoices when he finally finds it. And then Jesus is like, “No, no, that doesn’t do my Father justice.” So he switches to another comparison about a woman who lost some money she really, really needed. And she finds it and hollers at all her neighbors, waking them up because she’s so excited. And then Jesus is like, “No, no, that’s not quite right either.” And then Jesus settles on his final comparison. God is like a Father whose wayward son left, got messed up in the wrong crowd and then realized that he had to go back home and try to beg his way back into the household. And Jesus says that when the Father saw his lost son, He ran down the road to embrace his son, who had finally come home. This is what God is like, Jesus says.

There are lots of religions and lots of different views about God. But the God that Jesus talked about is the one that captures my heart. And I think that kind of God is the kind worth trying to learn more about. Jesus was convinced that if someone really got to know his Father, that they would be entirely changed.

I think he’s right. But it doesn’t matter what I think. Because I’m not you.

So what do you think?