Fundamentally Filled

I was reading a depressing article in the Times about religious fundamentalim in the United States. The comments at the bottom of the page made me think of Ravi Zacharias. What would he say in response to the claim that religion has done nothing good?

I went to his website, and didn't quite find the answer to that question, but I found an article where he explains how he became the man he is today. It is quite amazing. And it is a relationship with the Living God, not religion, that filled him. It is a relationship with the living God that influenced William Wilberforce, Abraham Lincoln, and the heroes of IJM who have done so much good-- who have righted injustices and evil and brought harmony and peace. While the skepticism at religion, especially fundamentalism, is understandable, I hate to see people arrogantly belittling my God, when what they are angry about is politics. Ravi's story encouraged me to remember His ultimate, transforming power.

RZ: I came to know Christ at the age of 17 while living in New Delhi, India, where I was reared. My father worked for the Indian government. Growing up in India, I faced many struggles, not the least of which was academic competition in a highly stratified culture. One day I realized that I really didn’t have any meaning in life. So, at the age of 17, I attempted to take my own life by poisoning myself.

Then, when I was recovering in a hospital, a friend brought me a New Testament. Because my body was dehydrated, I was receiving fluids and I could not hold the New Testament in my hands. The Scripture read to me was John 14, where Jesus said to His apostles, “Because I live, ye shall live also.”[16]

I knew that whatever else that Scripture meant, it meant more than physical life. I said, “This is the life that I have yearned for.” I made my commitment to Jesus Christ and have never looked back, except to remember how He rescued me and put a new song in my heart—new hungers, new desires, new life. He put a new hunger into my heart, a hunger for God Himself. Prior to that I was more concerned about success, good grades, good jobs. I was constantly thinking about what others thought about me. God refocused my attention on Himself.

I knew that this was not some kind of motivational therapy but a new kind of relationship. There is a difference between a person who hungers for love and one who has found love. God put in my heart that great hunger for Him, even as I knew that in Him I had already begun the process of being filled. Before I heard those Scriptures I was completely empty. Now I had found through the Person of Christ how I could be filled.