God is Dead...or is He?

Originally posted August 10th:

Last night my roommate Lisa & I met two 20 something Portuguese young men. Their names were Louis (Lou-ish) and Nuno (New-no). They both were graduates of university in the field philosophy and were very open to "practicing" their english with us. We sat with them for quite sometime at the empty table in the picture. We talked about Portuguese culture, travel and many other trivial things. They shared their plans for the future, to do NOTHING and drink lots of beer while doing it. But then for some reason Nuno made a statement. He said, "God is dead." I have no idea where it came from or why he said it but when I heard those words come from the man sitting next to me, I began to ask myself, "what does that statement really mean?" It is one I have heard before, and is one that gives such a clear picture to the darkness of Europe.

I wrestled with that question again today and began to realize that I must first forget everything I have learned from the bible and His realness in my own life. What does that leave me? Nothing. So I turned to philosophy and logic for answers. I mean if Nuno believes that God is dead by implication God must have been alive at one point. If God was at one time living, why is He now dead? What happened? How did He die?

These questions did not lead me to answer, instead they led to more questions. Is God dead because, like other religious icons, they are human like us and humanity dies? Or maybe it is more subjective than that. Maybe God is dead because we have deemed Him irrelevent to my life or the world around me, and is therefore of no use to me, could this be why God is dead? Yep, still only questions. No answers.

God is so real to me, so relevent to the manner in which I live my life. I cherish the gift of His love letter and the times I can see His hands of love and protection in my life. It breaks my heart to hear those words spoken - "God is dead!" I want to look at them and tell them, "No my friend He is not dead but died, died and rose again!" But you see that is not how things are done here in Europe.

The darkness of this continent and the coldness to the things of God astound me when I try to take it all in, Europe's rejection of God. But God never asked me to take on the burdens of Europe. He asked me to live a life surrendered to Him, demonstrating His love through my life. So what does that mean here in Portugal when those around me say "God is dead."? Its one person at a time, one conversation at a time. Conversation by conversation the darkness of Europe will not look so daunting an obstacle.

Though Lisa and I did not share the beauty of the name of Jesus with Louis and Nuno, we did start that conversation. A conversation that Lord willing will continue into the future when one day we might share the work that Jesus did in their behalf on the cross. Yes He did die, but He is not dead - HE IS ALIVE!