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And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:
And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? (1 Kings 19:11-13 KJV).
Let us face a bald fact–participation in eternal life for me is a daily experience filled with certitude. Rather than based on intellectual and theological arguments, my faith is grounded in an absolute conviction that to participate in the eternal (as I do) is to possess it. It reminds me of Jesus’s remark that the kingdom of God is in our midst. And how do I participate in the eternal? By living and breathing eternal verities. Take one verity for example: humility is and ever will be a vital force, and is the only sure avenue to the flowering of culture and to attaining abundant life. Humility is an indispensable component of love. Without authentic humility before facts (one of them surely is that for everything I know, there are one hundred trillion things I don’t) progress on all fronts is undercut by delusional, power-greedy egos. So therefore, all who intentionally grasp and live by the truth of humility are participants in values that will rule for the long-long term–for eternity. That is, eternity is among us AND we intrinsically feel and KNOW with full assurance that it is so and that we are graciously subsumed within it. That is, based on constant spiritual and evidential reinforcement given us daily in our whole aspect, our little gray cells assist in transmuting daily assurances to transcendent faith. Some would argue such certitude is a tad bit arrogant. I would only reply that if you really think humility is not vital and essential for progress and is eternally so, your lack of conviction and belief is understandable.
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