Darth Vader, a woman and an Ent

Today, on the bus ride to campus, an older (and by older I mean comparative with my grandfather) man struck up a conversation with me... While it was slightly creepy at times (e.g. when he managed to simultaneously insult and deride Christianity and tell me that he was single, available and looking, all in the same sentence), it was also interesting to see what he had to say about faith and God.

One of the mixed blessing/curses of working in ministry is that upon hearing about your job, people frequently tell you their opinion of God, Christians, faith, the Church, etc. While he began by telling me that he thinks of God as some combination of Darth Vader, a woman, and an Ent (picture that kids), he concluded by telling me about when he was homeless for four years and believed in God because he realized he couldn't get by without that belief. He said he couldn't have kept going, unless there was something outside of himself because he, in and of himself, was unable.

That's profound. Not the Ents part. The concept that we cling to God most tightly, we believe in God most fully, when we understand our need for him. Profound.

Mark 2:17 "Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Perhaps this is why God often seems to give us more than we ourselves can handle... because it is only in our neediest moments that we understand our need for Him, and we take our eyes off of ourselves and honestly and truly look at Him, sometimes for the first time.