Big Questions
Likely you’ve heard one or more stories of the 1st century Rabbi Akiva, an early Jewish sage. Here’s my new favorite:
One evening, Rabbi Akiva was walking home after a day of studying Torah. He was lost in deep meditation and so captivated by the text he was thinking about that he missed his turn to go home. Before realizing it, he had wandered directly to the front gate of a Roman military fortress and found himself face-to-face with the occupying enemy.
Before Rabbi Akiva could turn around and find his way back, the voice of a Roman guard on top of the gate boomed down to him: “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
The startled Rabbi could only stammer, “What?” The guard’s voice bellowed again, “Who are you? What are you doing here?” The Rabbi responded, “How much are you paid to ask me these questions?” The puzzled guard responded, “Two drachma per week.” After hearing this, Rabbi Akiva told him “I’ll pay you twice that amount if you’ll stand outside my door and ask me those same two questions every morning!”
I ran into Rabbi Akiva this week…sort of. I had coffee with a man named Frank and heard part of his story. It turns out that Frank too spent a long time (many years) walking in a sort of stupor (though not from studying Torah). Frank had missed many turns that might have led him home. And eventually he found himself in his thirties at a totally dead end (though not at a Roman fortress). And somehow, some way, over time, a voice was asking him the equivalent of “Who are you? What are you doing here?” (though it was Jesus’ voice, not a guard’s). That’s how Frank ended up responding to a God who had gone searching for him. He began to read scripture and eventually wandered into our church on a Sunday morning. He is now looking at his whole life through the lens of the gospel, asking brilliant questions and finding the world to be an entirely different place. It’s all so unlikely.
Who are you? What are you doing here? As I sipped my coffee and listened to Frank’s story, not only was it incredibly refreshing, but it made me wonder: how many more? How many more people like Frank are right around me, even if they don’t show it or seem open or ask questions? How many people are engaged in a journey towards God, and need someone to walk with them? How many of the people in our daily lives don’t know the answer to those two simple questions? In fact, how many of us perhaps have only a cursory understanding…or more likely, haven’t wrestled with them recently? To know that we are people deeply loved by God in Christ, to know that putting that relationship front and center is not an option but a calling, to know that we are tasked with being available to those around us means following Jesus into an unknown wilderness but NOT to a dead end.
What are you doing here? I’ve been pondering lately what the next few years will mean for followers of Jesus in our culture. What will living a kingdom life that honors God and serves people look like? What do people need? My attention is constantly drawn to the many things encouraging people to become less human. At the risk of sounding like a Luddite (which I’m not…but I might be getting closer), with the explosion of AI into every conceivable corner of life, I think human beings are at risk of losing track of what it means to be human. We have cars that drive us places with no drivers. Writing pieces are written by software programs. Pictures display not reality, but what we would like to think reality is. Robots handle manufacturing. Every company has AI voices for customer service reps. This week I read several articles about people who have started a “relationship” with an AI bot, literally going on dates with AI via a device, and finding it an acceptable or even desirable replacement for the loneliness epidemic they are experiencing. Studies say that fully one half of American adults experience loneliness. I don’t think the answer is more technology. I think it is more human beings living with compassion, patience and love. I think it is human beings reaching out in relationship because we are wired that way by a God in whose image we are created. I think the answer is God’s people acting like God’s people.
This just may be the most desperate challenge, an enormous opportunity and the weightiest responsibility for kingdom of God people in this decade–helping human beings be…human. It could start by standing outside someone’s door every morning and asking these questions: Who are you? What are you doing here? And hanging around to see what happens.
Peace of Christ,
Dan Baumgartner
Dan Baumgartner is the senior pastor at The Covein Santa Rosa CA and currently serves on The Fellowship Community Board.
These are the expressed views of Dan Baumgartner and not necessarily broader views of The Fellowship Community.