"We'll Be Lucky To Live Through It!"

Remember this guy in the movie "The Hunt for Red October?"

The actor's name is Senator Fred Dalton Thompson.

That's right, SENATOR Fred Thompson from Tennessee. He played the role of a Rear Admiral on the aircraft carrier. Do you remember his statement from this scene? It was 1990 when the movie was made so think back...

"This business is going to get out of control! It's going to get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it!"

To let it sink in, just take a second and watch it:

"We'll be lucky to live through it!"

Senator Thompson died November 1, 2015. His quote is very accurate when applied to our lives. Nobody gets out of this alive. The "business" of life is always out of control and escalating.

Senator Thompson did not make it out alive. Please do not think I am disrespecting him in any way. He was one of my favorite politicians (and one of my favorite actors as well). I supported him when he was a presidential candidate and still think he would have made a wonderfully competent president. He had professional presence. He was analytical. He had the ability to speak and relay content concisely. He got his points across in very few words.

The public does not know a lot about his religious background. We do know, thanks to Wikipedia and other sources, where he held his church membership and where he liked to go when home in Tennessee. He was quoted once as saying when asked about it during campaigning, "Me getting up and talking about what a wonderful person I am and that sort of thing, I'm not comfortable with that, and I don't think it does me any good." He considered his walk with God personal.

He did not make it out alive and neither will we.

We have a lot going on around us these days in this sin filled world. Terrorism, substance abuse, narcissism, greed, murder... and the list goes on. The effects of the fall of man in the garden are all around us just as much as they are carried and expressed within us. Condemned. No one will be lucky enough to live through it.

Except... Look at the Gospel of St. John, the 3rd chapter, verses 17-18"

¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (ESV)

We may not live through it, but those in Christ will live after it. And they will live forever.

With all that said about a sinful world above. Someone recently was asking in a Confessional Lutheran Facebook group if others were sometimes irked a bit about those who suddenly come out of the woodwork asking for "prayers" when tragedies like what happened in Paris occurred. He was referring to those who are all about the issue today, and then tomorrow "they are back to posting pictures of their cats." I sometimes have the same reaction even if it may come off a bit Pharisee-like (hey... I am still a sinner too). I felt for his question as I too have that reaction. Here was my response:

"I am all for anything that turns the head of the sinner back to the savior... but let me give you a slightly secular perspective from a confessional Lutheran paramedic... 150 people killed in Paris from a terrorist attack in Paris is no more a bump in the road than a 150 dying from starvation or the 200 transported by my ambulance service in the last two days. I will attempt to pray without ceasing... as much as my sinful self will allow... but the content will only vary slightly as the sinful world is no different today than yesterday. Is this an alarm bell? From a human perspective yes... from a Christian perspective no... Satan is out to get us all. All are condemned by the law. Some are atoned for by Christ's death. I will pray... but tomorrow I will be back to posting pictures of my cat (if I had a cat)... this tragedy is just part of living in a sin affected, tainted world. I see it in the streets every day from the patient compartment of an ambulance. Lord have mercy is probably the best prayer of all."

It was off the cuff, but it sums up my feelings. As Christians, we should always look to the empty cross. Christ crucified, died and risen again.

Many around us look at these things and want to point to the "end of times." They quote misinterpreted context of signs from scripture. Some even play with astrology in the name of scripture rather than regarding scripture itself. I say this... focus on the cross and resurrected savior... and the world to come instead of the WHEN it will happen. There is still much to be done.

A great fairly short watch on this is at this link by Reverend Fisk at Worldview Everlasting:

Greek Tuesday: I think I'll Go For A Walk (Mark 13:1-13)

Focusing on the end times (which we have been in since Christ ascended) robs us of doing the Lord's work.

We cannot live through this life and ultimately we do not want to do so. "Come Lord Jesus," is uttered quite often.

So in a land that is currently embroiled in many issues (including a all consuming internet argument over the lack of Christmas on coffee cups), I will leave you with a quote that I believe sums it all up... It is from a wonderful servant of the Lord... a man I have not yet met in person but that I hold in great theological regard... the Rev. Bart Day, Executive Director of the Office for National Missions for the LCMS:

"I love this image. We should not expect, nor do we need Starbucks proclaiming the gospel. So have a cup of coffee and enjoy, even if it is missing the trees, wreaths, and other holiday images (as if those things proclaimed the Christ). Come to church and receive the blood of Christ, given and shed for you. Find Jesus where He is to be found. Enjoy the first article gifts for what they are. Let Starbucks do coffee. The church will do Jesus."

So... the "business" is already out of control. We will not live through it. But there is a life after this one for those in Christ.

Focus on the cross.

Take heart in the words of Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, verse 1:18...

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (ESV)


In memory of Senator Fred Thompson 1942-2015.