Black Hoof Park

Is Spring here or what? It had to be 80° today. It felt so good to be off and go to the park. This is real Kansas family entertainment! I can't wait for the wild flowers to bloom there. That park is beautiful in the summer.

From Black Hoof Park

Starry nights

"The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us, and which touches us so profoundly, that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent as to knowing what it is."  Blaise Pascal.

I came to the United States at 17 in 1987 and grew up in France in the 70s and 80s. Not legally allowed to drive until the age of 18, I walked everywhere. I hiked my way to school (I rarely made it to the bus stop on time - this won't surprise those who know me), to the city center, to the train station, and all over Paris.

Some nights I walked from Montereau to my home, where my Mom moved the last three years I was in France. Because of the lack of lighting on a particular stretch of road, the stars in the night sky were incredibly visible.  Stars were so numerous and beautiful I would often wonder what was beyond them. I loved those clear nights.

I have another fond memory at a younger age, during a summer camp in the South of the French countryside. Our young leaders had us lay there in a field, with other kids from the big city, all of us asked to silently gaze at the starry skies and watch for shooting stars.  As I laid there on my back so still, listening to the thick sound of crickets, my hands flat in the grass, I wondered... What is beyond the stars? How did they come to be? What am I in this immense universe?  These are questions I wrestled with then, and still do to this day.  I never again saw that many shooting stars.

"...Thus our first interest and our first duty is to enlighten ourselves on the subject, whereon depends all our conduct.  Therefore among those who do not believe, I make a vast difference between those who strive with all their power to inform themselves, and those who live without troubling or thinking about it."  Blaise Pascal

At the age of 25, I discovered that truth is not relative, contrary to what I had been taught and lived, hurting those close to me. I learned that truth actually has a name and that it can be known through Jesus Christ.  Jesus is a problematic historical figure outside and inside religious circles, because he says "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" in John 14:6.  That statement demands a response from anyone hearing it.  Most religions historically acknowledge and respect Jesus as a smart, honest and gentle personage. Raised as a catholic boy who rarely opened the Bible, I respected Jesus too without knowing much about him.  It just seemed like everyone did.  At least I never heard anyone say he was a bad, crazy, misleading man.

"and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Jesus in John 8:32

Why would Jesus call himself the truth?  Wouldn't that make everything else that stands in opposition to him and what he says, untrue?  Then, I heard that he was God.   That really messed me up.  I had to read everything he said for myself.  He says "I am He" (Mar 13:6, Luk 21:8, Jhn 13:19, Jhn 18:5, Jhn 18:6, Jhn 18:8, Rev 2:23) which is what God says in the old testament (Isa 41:4, Isa 43:10, Isa 43:13, Isa 46:4, Isa 48:12) Could that be true?  Could he be the one who created the stars and everything in the universe?  The power of his words.  The way, the truth, and the life.  Absolute, exclusive, and graciously available to all.  Whether we believe in truth or not does not matter.  Truth does not force us to believe in it.  Truth simply is. Anyone is free to come to it, accept it and learn from it.  It's the simple beauty of truth.

The above Blaise Pascal quote en Français:

"L’immortalité de l’âme est une chose qui nous importe si fort, qui nous touche si profondément, qu’il faut avoir perdu tout sentiment pour être dans l’indifférence de savoir ce qui en est…Ainsi notre premier intérêt et notre premier devoir est de nous éclaircir sur ce sujet, d’où dépend toute notre conduite. Et c’est pourquoi, entre ceux qui n’en sont pas persuadés, je fais une extrême différence de ceux qui travaillent de toutes leurs forces à s’en instruire, à ceux qui vivent sans s’en mettre en peine et sans y penser." From Pensées.