Looking Through a Key Hole

Well, John McCain has chosen his running mate. Soon we will know more about Sarah Palin than we ever wanted to know. We are already hearing about what she has not done. Soon, we will hear about everything she wished she hadn't done. Going into politics is like walking through customs at the airport. It may begin slowly but it could very easily progress to a full out cavity search. Sorry for that image. Jean Paul Sartre, the existentialist philosopher, wrote a short story that captured why he was an atheist. In the short story he was spying on someone through a key hole. He felt a thrill as he watched them in part because he was getting completely unfiltered information about them. Then he heard a noise and realized that someone was looking through a key hole at him. It was God. Sartre said if God exists then he gets completely unfiltered information about us. For Sartre that was the most horrifying thought ever. Many of us would never think about running for public office because it is just a taste of this. All of us like to present ourselves to people on our terms. If my unfiltered thoughts would somehow spew themselves into this blog it would be the last time I ever opened a computer. But we have a problem. We have a deep fear of people really knowing what is going on deep down inside of us. We filter our presentation of ourselves even to our closest friends. But we also have this terrible need to be loved. And love is only as powerful as true knowledge of a person. And here is the wonder. God does look through the key hole at my life. He has completely unfiltered information about me...and yet. And yet, God loves and that is the greatest mystery of all. That is why God's love is so much greater than we can imagine because God knows. He knows and he still loves. That may be something Sarah Palin may need to be reminded of before this is all over. It is something that is my joy to remind you of today.