"Are you alive?"
Let me tell you a story...
One night a man decided to venture down to a local coffee bar in Manchester, England, to reach out to the youth that frequented the establishment. A clean cut preacher and former Royal Marine, this man was not the stereotypical coffee bar regular. Coming up on the bar he could read the sign posted above the dark doorway. "The Cat's Whisker," it read, and it was a dreary little dive with hardly enough light to guide one's foot. Indeed upon entering the man nearly tripped over a young chap who was intertwined with his girlfriend on the floor.
Without much of a thought, the man immediately asked the young lad, "Are you alive?" With a rather startled expression on his face the boy turned to the gal he was entangled with, and repeated the odd stranger's question to her.
"He wants to know if I'm alive?" he said to the girl. "Well, are you?" she replied back in a dumbfounded manner. Turning back now to the strange inquisitor, who clearly was not a part of this cultural scene, he blurted out, "Of course I'm alive!"
Without hesitation the man prodded further, "Why are you alive?" Equally as stunned by the second question, the young man sat up with an incredibly puzzled look on his face.
"Must I have a reason?" he asked the newcomer.
Gradually the cultural outsider pointed out various inanimate objects throughout the room and asked the young lad if each had a reason for existence. Unable to locate a single object in the room that did not serve some purpose, the man again turned to the fellow, who had by now found his way to a chair, and asked, "Do you consider yourself of greater importance than these inanimate objects?"
Heartily, the young man replied, "Of course, I am a person."
"And yet you say that you do not have a reason for existing," the man replied. Silence...(At this point the conversation of the young lad and the stranger held the attention of the entire bar.)
After a short silence the young man stated, "I am alive because I was born and have not yet died."
"Did you have any control over your birth, though?" the stranger pondered.
"I suppose not," replied the lad, "in fact I guess you could say that I was an accident."
Continuing, the stranger stated, "And do you plan on having any say in how you die?"
"No, I can't say that I will. More than likely it will be an accident as well," answered the young fellow.
"So what I hear you saying is that you believe you were created by accident, and simply live your life until it accidentally ends?" the stranger clarified.
"Yeah, I guess so," finished the boy.
Turning now to the entire scene, the stranger stated, "Well, I don't believe that is the case," and he began to tell all of the youths present in the coffee bar the Good News of Jesus Christ, how it explained their existence, and how it gave them purpose. After he had finished and answered any and every question the young people had, the young man whom he had originally struck up a conversation with abruptly stood up and looked the stranger square in the eye.
"I don't think that you believe a single word of what you just spoke of!" he said to the man.
Taken aback the stranger inquired, "Why not?"
"Because what you just told us, if true, would be the greatest story of all time with more importance to our lives than anything else in the history of the universe. And if that truly were the case, you would have been down here long ago to tell us." With that the young man turned and walked out of The Cat's Whisker.
The stranger, as he says, has never recovered. This is a true story told to me straight from the mouth of the man who lived it. His name is Stuart Briscoe, and he and his wife Jill have made more of an impact on me in the few hours I heard them speak than they could ever imagine.
Lord, let me not keep your story all to myself. Help me to find "The Cat's Whisker" in my life, and give me the courage to run - not walk to it - for the glory of Your kingdom. Father, I pray for this blog, that it may be a fruitful forum where You are honored and where Your Spirit guides the writing, the discussions, and the questions. As tough issues and topics are discussed, help us to follow the writing of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, "...brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, [and] be patient with everyone."
Amen
One night a man decided to venture down to a local coffee bar in Manchester, England, to reach out to the youth that frequented the establishment. A clean cut preacher and former Royal Marine, this man was not the stereotypical coffee bar regular. Coming up on the bar he could read the sign posted above the dark doorway. "The Cat's Whisker," it read, and it was a dreary little dive with hardly enough light to guide one's foot. Indeed upon entering the man nearly tripped over a young chap who was intertwined with his girlfriend on the floor.
Without much of a thought, the man immediately asked the young lad, "Are you alive?" With a rather startled expression on his face the boy turned to the gal he was entangled with, and repeated the odd stranger's question to her.
"He wants to know if I'm alive?" he said to the girl. "Well, are you?" she replied back in a dumbfounded manner. Turning back now to the strange inquisitor, who clearly was not a part of this cultural scene, he blurted out, "Of course I'm alive!"
Without hesitation the man prodded further, "Why are you alive?" Equally as stunned by the second question, the young man sat up with an incredibly puzzled look on his face.
"Must I have a reason?" he asked the newcomer.
Gradually the cultural outsider pointed out various inanimate objects throughout the room and asked the young lad if each had a reason for existence. Unable to locate a single object in the room that did not serve some purpose, the man again turned to the fellow, who had by now found his way to a chair, and asked, "Do you consider yourself of greater importance than these inanimate objects?"
Heartily, the young man replied, "Of course, I am a person."
"And yet you say that you do not have a reason for existing," the man replied. Silence...(At this point the conversation of the young lad and the stranger held the attention of the entire bar.)
After a short silence the young man stated, "I am alive because I was born and have not yet died."
"Did you have any control over your birth, though?" the stranger pondered.
"I suppose not," replied the lad, "in fact I guess you could say that I was an accident."
Continuing, the stranger stated, "And do you plan on having any say in how you die?"
"No, I can't say that I will. More than likely it will be an accident as well," answered the young fellow.
"So what I hear you saying is that you believe you were created by accident, and simply live your life until it accidentally ends?" the stranger clarified.
"Yeah, I guess so," finished the boy.
Turning now to the entire scene, the stranger stated, "Well, I don't believe that is the case," and he began to tell all of the youths present in the coffee bar the Good News of Jesus Christ, how it explained their existence, and how it gave them purpose. After he had finished and answered any and every question the young people had, the young man whom he had originally struck up a conversation with abruptly stood up and looked the stranger square in the eye.
"I don't think that you believe a single word of what you just spoke of!" he said to the man.
Taken aback the stranger inquired, "Why not?"
"Because what you just told us, if true, would be the greatest story of all time with more importance to our lives than anything else in the history of the universe. And if that truly were the case, you would have been down here long ago to tell us." With that the young man turned and walked out of The Cat's Whisker.
The stranger, as he says, has never recovered. This is a true story told to me straight from the mouth of the man who lived it. His name is Stuart Briscoe, and he and his wife Jill have made more of an impact on me in the few hours I heard them speak than they could ever imagine.
Lord, let me not keep your story all to myself. Help me to find "The Cat's Whisker" in my life, and give me the courage to run - not walk to it - for the glory of Your kingdom. Father, I pray for this blog, that it may be a fruitful forum where You are honored and where Your Spirit guides the writing, the discussions, and the questions. As tough issues and topics are discussed, help us to follow the writing of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, "...brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, [and] be patient with everyone."
Amen
posted by jhe at 12:55 PM
1 Comments:
That's an awesome story. How humbling it is to realize that we all have a Cat's Whisker in our life, we just sit around and wait for it to come to us instead of going out to find it and find those young men inside. Awesome.
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