Col. Rob Maness was at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 when terrorists flew an airplane into the building. He was helping survivors when a chaplain called him over to an injured man. “He was in really bad shape—it didn’t look like he was going to make it,” Maness said later. “I was told to stand there and hold his IV because it was leaking.” He kept talking to the injured man until paramedics took him to a hospital.

For fifteen years he prayed for the man and wondered what happened to him. Fast-forward to the recent Republican National Convention. Maness is running for the US Senate from Louisiana. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry introduced him to another man who was in the Pentagon that day, Texas State Senator Brian Birdwell. It turned out that Birdwell was the man Maness helped save. Both are strong Christians; each is now giving thanks to the Lord for what the other means to him.

On a very different subject: After School Satan Clubs could be coming to an elementary school near you. The Satanic Temple is petitioning school officials around the country to include them in their after-school programming. This is in response to Good News Clubs, a Christian outreach program made legal by a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that after-school programs cannot be excluded on the basis of their sponsors’ religious views. If Christians can do it, Satanists can as well, or so they claim.

There’s a principle at work here: we seldom see the future consequences of present decisions. That’s a fact Satan uses against us, but one the Lord uses for us.

Satan hates us so much that he cannot tempt us to do anything for which the gain outweighs the pain. However, as the “father of lies” (John 8:44) he wants to convince us that the opposite is true. Because we want what Satan offers, we find a way to justify choosing it. We see the consequences of temptation only after we fall to it: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

Conversely, our Father loves us so much that he cannot lead us to do anything for which the pain outweighs the gain. He loves us as much as he loves his own Son (John 17:23). He always and only wants what is best for us. However, in the moment of obedience we often cannot see its benefits. We see the consequences of faithfulness only after we choose to be faithful. Then we can say with Paul, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

As a result, the time to prepare for spiritual challenges is before we face them. In the moment, we cannot trust what seems best to us. We must decide now that we will be faithful when the temptation or opportunity comes. Good students study for a test before they take it.

When you face challenges to your faith today, remember two images: Satan as a roaring lion seeking to devour you (1 Peter 5:8) and Jesus dying on the cross for you. Then choose wisely.

Denison Forum

It sounded too outlandish to be possible: a man was going to jump from an airplane at 25,000 feet without a parachute, trying to land on a net less than half the size of a football field. But that’s what Luke Aikins did last Saturday.

He became the first person to skydive with neither a parachute nor a wingsuit. Aikins jumped from an altitude just 4,000 feet short of the summit of Mount Everest, landing on his back in a net suspended 200 feet above the California desert. Then he climbed out into the arms of his wife. Why did he do it? To show that “if you train right you can make anything happen.”

Here’s my question: Why do we care?

We’re fascinated by the thrill of near-death experiences. We’ll hold our breath watching an acrobat cross a canyon on a high wire. We’ll buy a ticket to see trapeze artists and lion tamers. We’ll flock to movies like Jason Bourne that feature high-speed chase scenes and death-defying stunts.

We want to escape the normalcy of our routine to feel the excitement of the extreme. Somehow we know that the world we experience is not all there is. As C. S. Lewis notes, the most spectacular sunset evokes in us a sense that there is still “something more.” When you hear a brilliant musician or hike through a scenic forest, don’t you feel it? Our world at its most beautiful is not enough.

This “something more” is a symptom of the “God-shaped emptiness” Pascal found in every human heart. As St. Augustine noted, our hearts are restless until they rest in our Lord. Until we are home, we can expect to feel homesick. This world, no matter how much we invest in it, will never feed the deepest hunger of our soul.

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