Life: Fast and Furious?

We're thinking together this week about the giving nature of our God, the One who sent His Son as a gift to us so that we might come to know and experience a relationship with Him.   Here are some encouraging words from Psalm 73:
25Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.26My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.27For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry.28But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, That I may declare all Your works.

Another translation says, "the nearness of God is my good."   We think about the Lord as the giver of all good gifts, and one of those gifts is certainly His presence.   We know that He is around us and we can see the evidence of His hand in creation.   We can sense the leadership of His Holy Spirit because He resides within our hearts - Christ in us is the hope of glory.   We recognize that He is near to us, drawing us close to Himself, comforting, strengthening, and directing us.   We are not alone, because He is with us - God with us, Emmanuel, the Savior we celebrate.

God is near to us, and He desires for us to experience Him consistently and acknowledge and walk in the light of His presence.   Here is what Psalm 145 says:
15The eyes of all look expectantly to You, And You give them their food in due season.16You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.17The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works.18The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.19He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them.

I have to be honest, I was not familiar with Paul Walker before this weekend, as news reports announced his death at the age of 40.   Walker was one of the actors in the successful "Fast and Furious" movie franchise and was scheduled to be in the seventh installment, set for a 2014 release.

But, his life was cut short, ironically enough, in a car accident - he was reportedly a passenger in a customized Porsche driven by a friend.   Earlier that afternoon, he had been involved in an event sponsored by the charity he founded, Reach Out Worldwide, which was raising funds for victims of the typhoon in the Philippines, according to a report on the Christian Post website.

Often you'll find some mentions of God or prayer in the death of a celebrity.  But, I think it's unusual to see coverage of a person's faith and practice after his or her death. As the Post reports, Walker was quoted at IMDb as saying, "I'm a Christian now. The things that drove me crazy growing up was how everyone works at fault-finding with different religions. The people I don't understand are atheists. I go surfing and snow boarding and I'm always around nature. I look at everything and think, 'Who couldn't believe there's a God? Is all this a mistake?' It just blows me away."

He was reported to be a non-denominational Christian with a Mormon background.  In a GQ UK magazine interview, he is quoted as saying:

"Thing is, I went to a born-again Christian high school, was brought up in a traditional Mormon family where these ideas about parenting are of structure and sacrifice. To think outside of that idea of family and parenting that I've grown up with is tough, but also very freeing."

His sense of adventure was also seen in his participation in a National Geographic Channel series called, "Expedition Great White" where he was part of a crew that caught and tagged great white sharks off the coast of Mexico. Walker majored in marine biology in college and was a great enthusiast of all things related to the ocean, including surfing.

He had exclaimed, "To now be going on an expedition with National Geographic? Are you kidding me?! Where are we going? It's just one of those opportunities I had to seize."

In a rather surreal element of the whole story, rumors had circulated on Friday that Paul Walker was dead.   An "R.I.P." Paul Walker Facebook page had attracted some one million likes, according to the Mediaite website.

This story carries with it some spiritual implications for us.  I still don't know much about the way Paul Walker lived his life, but there was a sense of adventure about him.   And, while driving fast cars or chasing sharks might not be your idea of having fun, there was a "wide open" aspect of this man's life that can inspire us.   I do believe that God has called us to regard our lives as an adventure, full of wonder and opportunity to see His hand around us.   He doesn't call us to the mundane, but He desires for us to live with vigor, passion, and joy.   Life is a gift from Him, and He wants us to live it to the fullest.

I think it is interesting, and a bit creepy that Walker was the victim of a death hoax the day before he actually died.  And, even in response to a false story, perhaps a million people or more had responded.   Of course, now in his real death, he has attracted a far greater amount of attention.   Next week, you'll hear a gentleman named Guy Hatcher on the program who will talk about building a sense of legacy.  We can ask ourselves, do we have a sense of legacy about our lives?   We may not have millions of fans or starred in a multi-film movie series, but God has given us people to impact - our spouses, our children, friends, fellow church members, co-workers, and others.   We do have to think about how they are being influenced by us.

Finally, this intriguing set of circumstances reminds us about having a sense of spiritual awareness. Walker was apparently devoted to living life with a purpose and identified the presence of God around him. He said, "I look at everything and think, 'Who couldn't believe there's a God? Is all this a mistake?' It just blows me away."   We can live our lives with an appreciation of the evidence of God.   His hand is everywhere for us to see and experience, and He desires for us to know Him and to see and acknowledge His work - don't take His presence for granted - look for and identify those "God-instances" that we can encounter.