The Good Life (Part 2) - Chuck Colson

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The Good Life (Part 1) - Chuck Colson
The Good Life (Part 2) - Chuck Colson

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The Good Life

Day 2 o 2

Guest: Chuck Colson

From the Series: A Life Well-Lived

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Bob: Do the truth claims of Christianity make rational, logical, reasonable sense? Chuck Colson says they do.

Chuck: I've gotten so convinced of the truth of the biblical worldview as applied in life against any other worldview, and I'm convinced if I could argue the case that the biblical worldview is the only one that conforms to reality, that I would win that case, hands down, intellectually – by reason, by arguments, by logic. But that doesn't get you to God. As a matter of fact, sometimes the more you know, the tougher it gets.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, August 30th. Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. What can we do or say that will persuade a watching world of the reality of who Christ is?

And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us. You know, the guest we have with us this week – I don't know – in fact, I'm curious – it's obvious, as you read through what he's written, that he's been influenced by C.S. Lewis and by Francis Shaffer, and I just wonder who wins the battle there – Lewis versus Shaffer? Who has had more influence in Chuck Colson's life – C.S. Lewis or Francis Shaffer?

Chuck: I would hate to answer that question, Bob, because both of them have had a huge influence on my life. Lewis would probably, however, if I had to chose between the two, would be number one because it was his arguments in "Mere Christianity," that persuaded me that Christianity is rational, reasonable, sustainable, as a matter of fact, nothing else makes sense. And so you'll see a lot of Lewis through this book.

In terms of my theology, Shaffer; and, before him, Abraham Kiper, influenced my perspective on Scripture and the relationship of the church and Scripture to the world. So in two different areas, I am profoundly grateful to those three men.

Bob: Was Shaffer still alive when you came to faith?

Chuck: Oh, yes, I knew him. Oh, sure, I went to LeBrie [ph] and visited with him at his invitation. We spent a day together. It was a wonderful time. He was a very humble man, and then I visited with him a number of times when he came to the States and was at speeches and conferences. I was at his funeral, the first person to come in and view the body, as a matter of fact, when he laying in his living room.

Bob: I kind of just jumped in. I guess most of our listeners probably know our guest.

Dennis: I think they recognized the voice of Chuck Colson. Chuck, welcome back to FamilyLife Today.

Chuck: Thanks, Dennis, nice to be with you.

Dennis: Chuck has written a book called "The Good Life," and you don't have to turn but a couple of pages before you read a quote by Pascal, who said, "The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason."

Chuck: Blaise Pascal is one of the most interesting men ever, and his writings have affected me greatly, as well, particularly his Pensees. But Pascal died in his late thirties, and was the inventor of the computer. He did the first crude calculating device.

Bob: This isn't some Al Gore thing you're just making up?

Chuck: No, no, this isn't Al Gore inventing the unit. Blaise Pascal, 300 years ago, came up with the concept that has become the computer. He was also a great philosopher and great Christian. What he's basically saying is that reason is a gift of God, and we can use reason to pursue with our minds facts and truth, and the more we look for the facts and truth about life, we will eventually get to the point where we realize reason takes us only so far.

Dennis: Right.

Chuck: And the more we reason – and that's what I do in this book – the more we reason, we get to the place where we have to end up in faith.

Dennis: You tell a story at the beginning of your book that beautifully illustrates that. It's about your daughter, Emily, who is a single parent raising an autistic child, Max.

Chuck: Yes, she's a great heroine to me, and Max is the most lovable kid in the world. And I tell the story of why I wrote this book, basically, this book is to try to show people how the world works and how they fit into it, and it's to be non-threatening. It's a book for seekers. That's why it relies on reason for the first two-thirds of the book before it gets to Scripture and faith, because I want to draw people in.

But one thing about autism, as most people perhaps are aware, everything has to be orderly in just perfect arrangement for an autistic child. When Max comes to our house – he's 14, he's getting to be a big kid. Emily does a wonderful job managing him. When he comes to our house, he checks where all the pictures are. Are they all on the wall, in the same place? Does the stove work the same way? Has anything changed? And then as long as he knows everything is okay, he's at peace.

Well, one night we had a visitor come to the house, and it was unexpected, and he brought a Christmas gift for me, and when he came in the house, Max started to get agitated, and you could see he was going to have what euphemistically called a "meltdown," and they go out of control, they have a tantrum. So Emily grabbed a pad and sat down with Max and drew pictures. She's a good artist. She drew little box pictures like a comic strip. And she would say, "This man knocking on the door, he's a friend of Grand...