By author Lee Strobel in his weekly blog Investigating the Faith with Lee Strobel (January 25, 2020)
“In a best-selling book, Generation X guru Douglas Coupland tracks a young man through a troubled era. He’s remorseful over his mistakes. His marriage has stagnated. He’s ensnared in a meaningless job. Instead of deep friendships, he endures what he calls “halfway relationships.” He’s worried that he doesn’t feel life the way he used to. He peers into his future with uncertainty.
The book’s title: Life after God.
But after 358 pages of aimlessness and frustration, this was his conclusion:
Now — here is my secret: I tell it to you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you read these words. My secret is that I need God — that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.
Like Coupland’s character, maybe you have a secret, too. Perhaps your own circumstances are causing you to conclude that maybe — just maybe — you need God to breathe hope and life into your world.
Or maybe you need him to knock the crust off a heart that’s corroded with self-interest and cynicism. Or maybe you need him because . . . well, to be honest, you’re not sure why. You just sense that there’s got to be more to your existence than a job, three meals a day, and the gnawing feeling that something’s missing.
So you’ve been casually checking out Christianity. Nothing too serious yet. You’ve leafed through a book or two. Questions are swirling through your mind. You’d like to get at the truth, but you’re not sure how to — and you’re a little afraid of what you might find.
Or possibly you already know a lot about the idea of God, but you’re realizing that you really don’t know him. You’ve wrestled with the concept of a deity yet never embraced Jesus himself. You went to church as a youngster and even went through religion classes, but they seemed to have numbed you toward God more than sensitized you toward him. If someone asked, you’d say that you were a religious person, although the truth is this: a heartfelt, life-changing, soul-satisfying faith has always eluded you.
This prayer is for you. Seventeen words that can start a change in your life:
“God, open my eyes to who you really are, and then I’ll open my life to you.”
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II KIngs 6:17a — Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes…
Mark 8:25 — Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
Luke 24:30-31a — When (Jesus) was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.
John 12:20-21 — Among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
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Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.