Coffee with Chris

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by a Starbucks for coffee (venti Amercano, extra shot, room) and sat down outside while waiting for my son's basketball game to start at the gym across the street. Just as I got myself settled down to quietly enjoy the first late afternoon of spring, a fellow sat in the seat next to me, took out his laptop, and commented on what a lovely afternoon it was. "It is grand, isn't it?" I said to him.

His name was Chris, and he often came to Starbucks because, as he told me, it was the only place where he could get a cup of coffee, have a cigarette, find an electrical outlet for his laptop, and enjoy the afternoon. Guess it doesn't get much better than this I told him.

I asked Chris if he telecommutes for his work, and he said no, that he was a philosophy graduate from a local university. His field of study was moral philosophy, which he said was the most difficult of the philosophy disciplines. Myself, being a graduate of the Yogi Berra school of thought (when you come to a fork in the road, take it), I asked him about the conclusions regarding life he has drawn. Our conversation quickly turned to the biblical Christian faith.

The next twenty minutes was taken up with some of the most exhilirating discussion I have had in a long time. There we were, two men with diametrically opposing views, discussing the person and work of Jesus Christ. He was a man unlike any other, said Chris. Why do you think that is, I replied. Because Jesus loved God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. I wish all men could do that, Chris said. The world would be a better place.

Indeed, it would be.

The conversation was wide ranging and included Plato, Seneca, Calvin, Luther, Moses, Isaiah, Kant, Van Til. And all in twenty minutes. If you were a fly on the wall listening, ideas and opinions flew around seemingly at random, and left spattermarks in the air around us. It reminded me of a Jackson Pollock work.

Chris is looking at Christ through the eyes of his presuppositions. To Chris, the world is material, observable, phenomenal, and ultimately unknowable. But God, the self-authenticating, self-attesting Creator of this material, observable, phenomenal world has revealed Himself, His thoughts, and His desires to men. His ultimate revelation is in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our understanding of all life has its beginning and end at the cross of Christ. Apart from the cross, life and creation does not make sense.

Chris and I shook hands, and I went to my son's game. I got there shortly after the second half started. Great game, disappointing loss. Sorry Matthew, but I'm proud of you and your team for the way you played and conducted yourselves. Basketball season is over, and boy's volleyball season starts in two weeks at the very same gym across the street from the very same Starbucks.

Gee, I hope to see Chris again.