Ideas

On the Grand Canyon Bus

Columnist; Contributor

The Christian life is about the journey as well as the destination.

In may, exactly three months before the Democratic National Convention in Denver, I spoke at a state prayer luncheon in the convention center that would soon be filled with delegates wearing silly hats and blowing noisemakers. City officials were anxiously organizing squads of policemen to control the expected platoon of demonstrators outside. Inside the same hall where we were focusing on prayer, politicians would take turns promising to turn the nation in a new direction and right its wrongs.

Thinking about what to say to the leaders gathered, I recalled a line from the contemporary German philosopher Jürgen Habermas: Democracy requires of its citizens qualities that it cannot provide. Politicians can conjure an exalted vision of a prosperous, healthy, free society, but no government can supply the qualities of honesty, compassion, and personal responsibility that must underlie this vision.

For all its strengths, the United States shows some alarming signs of ill health. With less than 5 percent of the world’s population, we have 25 percent of the world’s prisoners—more than Russia and China combined. We consume half of all the prescription drugs in the world, and yet by most standards our overall health ranks lower than most other developed countries’. In every major city, homeless people sleep in parks and under bridges. And our leading causes of death are self-inflicted: obesity, alcohol, sexually transmitted diseases, stress-related illnesses, drugs, violence, environmental cancers. Obviously, politicians have not solved all our problems.

George Orwell, observing the loss of religious faith in Europe (which he had applauded), remarked:

For two hundred years we had sawed and sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting on. And in the end, much more suddenly than anyone had foreseen, our efforts were rewarded, and down we came. But unfortunately there had been a little mistake. The thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all, it was a cesspool full of barbed wire. … It appears that amputation of the soul isn’t just a simple surgical job, like having your appendix out. The wound has a tendency to go septic.

Fortunately, U.S. politicians of both parties still recognize that faith plays a vital role in a healthy society. People of the Christian faith are charged to uphold a different kind of vision. That this is God’s planet, not ours, and as we scar it beyond repair, God weeps. That a person’s worth is determined not by appearance or income or ethnic background or even citizenship status, but rather is bestowed as a sacred, inviolable gift of God. That compassion and justice—our care for “the least of these my brothers,” in Jesus’ words—are not arbitrary values agreed upon by politicians and sociologists, but holy commands from the One who created us.

We Christians don’t always live out that vision. We find it difficult to maintain a commitment to both this world and the next, to this life and the next.

A friend of mine uses the analogy of a busload of tourists en route to the Grand Canyon. On the long journey across the wheat fields of Kansas and through the glorious mountains of Colorado, the travelers inexplicably keep the shades down. Intent on the ultimate destination, they never even bother to look outside.

As a result, they spend their time arguing over such matters as who has the best seat and who’s taking too much time in the bathroom.

The church can resemble such a bus, says my friend. We should remember that the Bible has far more to say about how to live during the journey than about the ultimate destination.

Some people of faith tend to be either/or. A suicide bomber, for example, willingly forfeits this life for the hope of rewards in the next. That utterly contradicts the Christian message, for Jesus taught us to pray that God’s will be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, he described it as taking shape now, on this planet.

The world does not need either/or people of whatever persuasion—neither the believer who sees life as something merely to endure, nor the George Orwell who realizes all too late that he sawed off the limb he was resting on.

Rather, we need both/and Christians, people devoted to God’s creatures and God’s children as well as to God, and as committed to this life as to the afterlife, to this city as to the heavenly city. Otherwise, the rhetoric from Democrats in Colorado, as well as from Republicans in Minnesota, will be just that: empty rhetoric. For, as Habermas says, a democracy of free people must look elsewhere for the qualities its citizens need.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

Yancey’s previous columns are available on our site.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

Creating Culture

Hope for Troubled Times

When a Professor of Aramaic Meets Hollywood

The Ironic Faith of Emergents

McLaren Emerging

My Top 5 Books on Food

Bookmarks

News

It's Primetime in Iran

News

Looking for Home

Review

Girls on Display

Missionary Myths

Theology in Aisle 7

News

The Father of Faith-Based Diplomacy

Should I Fish or Lay Low?

News

Richard Foster on Leadership

A Life Formed in the Spirit

Review

Debauchery and Crucifixes

News

Quotation Marks

News

Prayer at the Pump

News

Go Figure

News

Going to Bat for His Neighbors

Choosing Celibacy

Wire Story

Sunday Drivers

News

For the Love of Lit

News

The Other Kind of Angels

News

No More Shortcuts

News

Re-Imagining Reality

Crouch and Culture

Cultivating Where We're Planted

News

Caesar's Sectarians

News

Healing ORU

Missional Misstep

News

'Dead Sea Scrolls on Stone'

News

Translation Tiff

News

Leaving Lakeland

News

Undue Attention in Algeria

News

The Party of Faith

News

Salvation through Buddhism?

View issue

Our Latest

Wicked or Misunderstood?

A conversation with Beth Moore about UnitedHealthcare shooting suspect Luigi Mangione and the nature of sin.

Why Armenian Christians Recall Noah’s Ark in December

The biblical account of the Flood resonates with a persecuted church born near Mount Ararat.

Review

The Virgin Birth Is More Than an Incredible Occurrence

We’re eager to ask whether it could have happened. We shouldn’t forget to ask what it means.

The Nine Days of Filipino Christmas

Some Protestants observe the Catholic tradition of Simbang Gabi, predawn services in the days leading up to Christmas.

The Bulletin

Neighborhood Threat

The Bulletin talks about Christians in Syria, Bible education, and the “bad guys” of NYC.

Join CT for a Live Book Awards Event

A conversation with Russell Moore, Book of the Year winner Gavin Ortlund, and Award of Merit winner Brad East.

Excerpt

There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Proper’ Christmas Carol

As we learn from the surprising journeys of several holiday classics, the term defies easy definition.

Advent Calls Us Out of Our Despair

Sitting in the dark helps us truly appreciate the light.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube