A changed life - if only!

It was a number of years ago, and my wife and I were spending our summer holiday touring France with our caravan. One of the strange things about France is that it is, officially, a totally secular nation, yet every day has its "saint" (many of the names of whom, I have never heard!), and it has more religious holidays than most countries - certainly than the UK.

It also has some of the most beautiful church buildings I have ever seen. On one occasion - I don't recall the details - we were visiting one of those buildings. As we moved quietly around, my wife whispered to me: "Everyone is so quiet in here!" She was perfectly correct. It was, I believe, because there was something about the building that touched people who were not in the least "religious" - that something that, I was taught, is referred to as the "numinous". That simply means a sense of awe, of mysticism, of sublimity, of transcendence. In short, there is a sense of the presence of Almighty God in such a building.

That occasion was brought to mind by my reading about a similar situation experienced by Lord Kenneth Clark, possibly best-known for his television series, "Civilisation - a personal view", broadcast in 1969; and as having been Chancellor of the Exchequer in the mid-seventies. In his autobiography, he makes clear that he is a liberal, secular humanist. However, as the TV series shows, he was not indifferent to the role of religion, and specifically Christianity, in the history of western Europe. 

Indeed, he writes of a "religious experience" that "... took place in the church of San Lorenzo, but did not seem to be connected with the harmonious beauty of the architecture. I can only say that for a few minutes, my whole being was radiated by a kind of heavenly joy, far more intense than anything I had ever experienced before." Sadly, the "flood of grace", as he went on to describe it, created a problem for him. "My life was far from blameless. I would have to reform. My family would think I was going mad, and perhaps after all, it was a delusion, for I was in every way unworthy of such a flood of grace. Gradually the effect wore off and I made no effort to retain it. I think I was right. I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course." (emphasis added).

How tragic! If only he had responded, positively, to that grace-granted glimpse of that which is beyond this material world. If only he had allowed it to turn his attention away from this world, and towards the Lord Jesus! He would have experienced a changed life - if only! He would have become a part of that glorious, invisible, world that is not an illusion, but the ultimate reality. If only!

Father God can enable any of us to change, no matter how embedded in the world we may be. The miracle of the new birth (see John 3:5-7) will take place when we say "Yes" to the stirring of God's grace in our hearts. Don't put it off! Paul says: "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (II Cor.6:2; emphases added).

Kenneth Clark died in May 1983. As far as I know, he died as he had lived - without faith in the Lord Jesus, the Christ. If only!