Looking for Evidence? How About Redemption and Transformation?

Like any media craze, the public’s fascination with “Duck Dynasty” and the folksy, country bumpkin-ish Robertson family has cooled somewhat. But Phil, Miss Kay and the rest of the Robertson clan remain fixtures in the American psyche, both for their duck calls and their downhome reality show antics.

 

Image from Wikipedia

The real story of how they arrived at such cultural prominence isn’t one that most viewers could possibly have imagined. Almost every episode has included some reference to faith, but until now not a lot was known about the harrowing journey the Robertsons traveled before God got their attention. The release of the theatrical film, “The Blind,” changed that.

Similar to recent Christian films like “The Chosen” and “The Sound of Freedom,” response to “The Blind” exceeded box office expectations, resulting in its nationwide run being extended by weeks. What impresses most about the excellent film is its depiction of the redemptive, life-changing power of Jesus Christ.

 

From time to time, we’ll hear someone demanding evidence of Jesus Christ, the existence of God, or why Christianity matters anyway. There’s lots of evidence – historical, archaeological, eyewitness accounts, and many other kinds. But perhaps the greatest evidence is the testimony of changed lives; individuals and families saved from absolute ruin and transformed into people filled with joy, hope, and unwavering faith and trust in the God with whom “all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).

 

In “Duck Dynasty” Phil Robertson is the kindly family patriarch, spinning yarns and pithy witticisms about life in general and faith in particular. The motto on his official website is “Faith. Family. Ducks.” But “The Blind” shows how lost and desperate Robertson and his young family were before a country preacher introduced him to Jesus Christ nearly 50 years ago.

 

Growing up in a wrong-side-of-the-tracks family, with an oft-absent father and mother suffering from mental illness, Robertson didn’t seem destined for a path from poverty to celebrity. After girlfriend Kay became pregnant, he abandoned a promising college football career to provide for his family. Alcohol, however, soon became his constant friend, along with all its destructive consequences.

 

Sometimes people must get so low in life that they have no choice but to look up. That’s where Robertson was – having lost his wife and family, home and business. Only then was he willing to hear about what Christ had done for him on the cross and respond by receiving God’s mercy and grace.

 

His story of redemption and transformation is just one of countless accounts given through the ages. There’s the apostle Paul, formerly known as Saul, a zealous Pharisee and persecutor of Christians who met Christ on the road to Damascus. Radically changed, Paul went on numerous missionary journeys proclaiming the Gospel message. In Pisidian Antioch the transformed apostle told synagogue rulers, “We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers He has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus” (Acts 13:32).

 

The song, “Amazing Grace,” is well known not only in churches but also in concert halls: “I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see.” John Newton, writer of those lyrics, penned those words from the depths of personal experience. One result of his conversion was renouncing the slave trade in which he once engaged and becoming an outspoken abolitionist, seeing slavery abolished in his native England before he died.

 

We could cite countless other examples. You probably know of some yourself – you might be one of them. Lives dramatically and eternally changed, not “cleaned up” but transformed by being born again spiritually, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3.

 

In His parable of the prodigal son, the Lord told of a young man with the gall to demand his inheritance while his father was still living, then proceeding to squander the fortune and end up wallowing with pigs. The son, defeated and ashamed, returned home hoping to be accepted as a servant but his father ecstatically embraced him and declared, “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:24).

 

This story figuratively depicts the reception the Lord gives to each of His children who recognize the truth of Romans 3:10-12, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God…there is no one who does good, not even one.”

 

At that moment of discovery, many find God turning their despair into delight. Paul expressed triumphantly, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?... Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Roman 7:24-8:2).

Ultimately, the Christian life is one of faith, not empirical evidence. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). But the amazing outworking of that faith – lives forever changed not by personal effort but by the transforming presence of Christ through His Spirit – should be enough evidence to cause even hardened skeptics to reconsider.  

Happy, Happy, Happy

A Facebook friend, in response to one of my comments, recently observed how we feel about things and life in general, like being happy or sad, is largely a matter of choice. There’s a lot of validity to that. I recall years ago someone wrote a book called Happiness is a Choice. I never read it, so apparently I chose to be happy without it.

In many instances we can actively choose our attitudes. Urban Meyer, head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team (it’s my blog, so I can mention them if I want!) has been using a formula with his players supporting this concept: E + R = O (Event + Response = Outcome).

That idea finds affirmation in many quarters. We all remember the lilting Bobby McFerrin tune, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” I’ve not become an avid fan of the TV reality series “Duck Dynasty,” but noticed Phil Robertson, the original Duck commander (head quack pot?) has written an autobiography called Happy, Happy, Happy. Better than sad, sad, sad for sure.

"Happy" can come and go in
an instant. "Joy" stays forever.

Being essentially a glass-half-full kind of person, finding the happier side of things might be easier for me than for some others. But I only agree with the notion that we can choose to be happy to a degree. Since our state of “happy” is strongly influenced by happenings around us, remaining happy about everything would require some level of lunacy or cluelessness.

Suppose you’ve had an enjoyable time at the mall, bought a few nice things you needed – or wanted – and you’re feeling happy. Then you notice the fender on your car, smashed, taillight in smithereens on the pavement. You search for a note from the offending motorist, but there’s none. It was hit-and-run, and now you’re calling your insurance agent, unsure about the extent of your uninsured motorist coverage. How happy are you now?

Or you’ve been having a bothersome pain, so you go to your physician, who orders a couple of tests and some blood work. “It’s probably nothing to be concerned about,” she assures you in her best effort to avoid admitting, “I don’t have a clue what’s wrong with you.” A day or two later you receive a phone call and learn the “probably nothing” is definitely something, and it needs to be treated immediately. How happy are you now?

Or you report for work, as you have the past dozen years or so, ready to tackle another day of challenges. Your boss calls and asks you to come by his office. As compassionately as possible, he informs you the company is being forced to make some regrettable cuts – and sorry, you’re a “cut-ee.” How happy are you now?

There’s even a misconception that if you’re a follower of Christ you’re supposed to be continually happy. After all, doesn’t the old hymn say, “and now I am happy all the day”? But in reality, the state of being or feeling happy is neither requirement nor expectation for following Jesus.

Checking with my trusty concordance, the word “happy” appears less than 30 times in the entire Bible. However, there are more than 200 variations of the word “joy” in the Bible. In reality, happy is to joy what a housecat is to a tiger. Totally different animal.

Yes, there are many times when happiness and joy intersect. But joy can exist – even endure – when happy goes away. That’s the promise Jesus made to all who follow Him.

He said, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:9-11).

One thing Jesus never promised His followers was they would always be happy or without problems. In fact, He assured just the opposite. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). In place of “take heart,” other translations use the words “be courageous” or “be of good cheer.” In other words, we can rejoice even when we find nothing to feel happy about.

Gazing at the world around us, some of us may be delighted by what we see, others may feel distressed. You might have just experienced one of the happiest moments of your life, or you may be enduring a great personal loss or tragedy. Regardless of the circumstances, even when we feel overwhelmed, incapable of choosing to be happy, we can experience the joy only Jesus can give.