I'm excerpting without permission a passage from Ken Wilson's Jesus-Brand Spirituality. If Pastor Wilson or his publisher want me to take this down, I will. The reason I share this is because it's about a dear friend of mine. I'm not interested in profiting from this website, or this post, and I hope it encourages people to buy the book and read it. So here goes:

The young man who leads our Friday night visits with homeless friends in Ann Arbor taught me a lot about how worldviews shape perceptions and experiences. Eric's father is an atheist. Eric's own atheism was therefore learned and not some passionate reaction against the excesses of religion. He grew up with little interest in or exposure to religion, all of which makes his experience especially instructive.

Eric was a "Deadhead," having attended more than fifty Grateful Dead concerts. Not to stereotype, but Eric during this time smoked a lot of marijuana. He describes living for years in a cloud of the stuff. He stopped smoking marijuana for about a week and during that week became curious about God; he even asked out loud, "God, are you there?" No response. Shortly thereafter, he realized he wouldn't make much headway getting a new job until he cleared his system again for the inevitable drug test.

After this background, Eric told me of a vivid spiritual experience. "Around that time," he said, "I started getting curious about God again. Then one day, I heard a voice say, I'm here."

Eric instantly understood this as the answer to the question he asked years earlier: "God, are you there?"

When Eric recounted hearing I'm here, he pointed, ever so slightly with his finger, away from his body. He then described how those two words changed his life. He felt that the main message of Christianity, Jesus, was true. He decided to start living as though that were the case. He swore off marijuana and has been drug-free ever since (a matter of years now). His life took on a much clearer focus and sense of purpose. He essentially hopped right onto the path of Jesus brand spirituality.

I asked him, "When you say, 'God said, I'm here,' what was the hearing experience like? An inner voice?"

"Yes," Eric replied, though his eyes said otherwise. So I pressed him.

"All right," he said. "I say it was an inner voice, so people don't think I'm crazy. Actually it felt like it came from right next to me."

Bingo. Eric grew up with a worldview that in some important respects is closer to the ancient worldview than the one in the process of receding or undergoing a major adjustment. Before these recent shifts took place, the modern worldview said, "What you see is what you get. Everything material is predictable, and with enough information we'll be able to squeeze all the mystery out of it. There is no God in heaven, because we've been up there, and no God was sighted."

But Eric grew up watching Star Trek, the television series that introduced popular culture to the new physics that began with Einstein. He knew all about space-time bending, multiple dimensions, wormholes, and quantum uncertainty from Star Trek. So when Eric heard, I'm here, as though from a space right next to him, he had the worldview to allow such a perception to land and take hold.

And take hold it did. You should have seen Eric in action the other Friday night leading the homeless ministry. He was their pastor. He was a breath of fresh God-air to those homeless people who love him because he so obviously loves them. One of the homeless men claims Eric prayed for his injured eye and his eye got better right away; the man reported that he stopped pickling himself in alcohol since then without even intending to. (no one is claiming any instant healing, just the possibility of a touch from God through Eric.)

Thank you for letting me share Pastor Wilson's thoughts on my friend.