Gary

 

 

"Even though we don't believe in God, he always believes in us" 

 

I have often thought as we travel life’s journey, we will meet many different people that will effect out lives in different ways. One of those people was a young man named Gary that I met while stationed in Okinawa in 1970.

Gary was from Nebraska and graduated from the University of Nebraska (Big Red). He graduated with a degree in Chemistry, and after graduation knew the draft board has hot on his trail. Rather than going to Viet Nam, he decided to enlist in the Navy and serve four years as a Cryptology Specialist. Gary was sent to Okinawa and that is where our paths crossed.

Gary was a great guy. He was tall, athletic, good looking and smart. Looking at him, talking to him, one would think that Gary was the type of guy that would be suitable to marry your daughter. Gary did have one major flaw however – he was a rock hard atheist.

Gary and I would have many discussions about politics, history, science and yes, faith. Even though my faith was young and immature at that time, I was very uncomfortable talking about the nihilistic version of God that Gary embraced. I never did figure out if Gary was raised with faith and then lost it in the halls of academia, or if he never had it from the start. I do know that Gary had developed many good arguments on why God did not exist.

Gary use to tell me one thing over and over again that I would try to argue with. He would say “Believing in God just makes it easier for us to die”. Using my immature theology, I would argue with him. “That’s not true Gary”, I would say. “It is much more than that”. And that is as far as I could take it. I did not want Gary to be an atheist, but I did not have the words to share that would have dissuaded him from that path. Also, I never asked God to touch his heart. In short, I did not do much at all.

If I were to have the same discussion with Gary today, I would have responded differently. When he told me that believing just made it easier for us to die, I would agree with him. Believing in, and following God does make it easier for us to die as we know what is waiting. But there is another side to the story. I would also tell Gary that having a relationship with Christ makes it easier to live. Not that we will escape the trials and tribulations while on Earth – we just won’t have to face them alone. We will know a peace and a joy that we did not know before Christ came into our lives.

I have thought many times about Gary and his atheism since that time in Okinawa. I could not imagine what life would be like to say to God, “Sorry, I don’t need you, I don’t want you, and I don’t even know if you exist”. To me, being an atheist would bring a spiritual loneliness that would make life seem empty and pointless. I hope and I pray that Gary has found our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Even though Gary was not looking for God at that point in time, God knew exactly where Gary was. Gary may have given up on God, but God never give up on Gary.