Fred Farkle is a guy that Gordy McDonald introduced me to many years ago.  Fred is a bit of a duffus, or a least he was.  After hearing about what's been going on in his life, I thought I'd take some time to let you get to know him too.  By the way, he is not related to Fred the Fish. 

Fred is your average guy living in America.  He's surrounded by an overwhelming crush of people in pursuit of shiny things that promise life but deliver frustration.  Fred was one who chased after the shiny things too, but one day he realized that the things that shine and caught his attention didn't always bring the happiness they promised.  He'd had his share of fun things: couple of nice sailboats; camper; big house; cool cars and on and on and on.  All the while he was gathering up all this great stuff he found it was getting more and more diffcult to be that free and easy spirit he once was.

Fred spend the first 21 years of his life as a non-believer in Christ.  Oh, he had an inkling that there was a Jesus, but he wasn't sure if Moses and Jesus were the same person.  When the kids in Sunday school laughed at him when he voiced that, it set him back a few years.

After Fred beat his head against the wall for many years and found it hurt, he turned to Christ and was "saved."  That's what his friends told him anyway because he wasn't really sure what had happened.  He did know something was different because the drugs he used were losing their hold they had on him.  In fact, after one difficult journey on LSD he vowed that would be the last time he would let drugs rule his life.  He's stood firm in that decision for 38 years now. 

Fred hung out with some wild Christians in those early years.  After every church service a group of them would invite him to go forward to the altar and tarry for the Holy Spirit.  Fred wasn't sure what a "tarry" was but he'd go up anyway and listen to his friends wail and cry in "tongues."  He thought it was pretty cool. 

As Fred grew in his faith, he bounced around a number of churches and organizations and was generally well-liked wherever he went.  Most people like a duffus--they aren't too threatening.  Fred tried about every flavor of American Christianity he could find.  He avoided the Catholics because everyone told him they were the anti-Christ.  He wasn't sure if that was right or wrong, but why take a chance when there were so many other venues to visit?  Fred did it all.  He had been a 4 Square, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, non-denominational Charismatic (there are many types of those and he tried about all of them from confessing new cars and perfect health to the more conservative approach), Assembly of God and others.  What Fred found was the same thing as me:  None of them seemed to have the fit he was looking for.  Fred would be happy for a while and then he'd start his wondering and wandering to the next expression of faith.  He found out that he was "eternally sealed" in one place and "Dangling over hell's fire" in another.  At one church he had no choice about being there because it was all predestined.  Then another one told him he'd have to choose what to do because God left everything up to us.   It seems that the unity Jesus spoke about was somewhere else.  All the while Fred had in the back of his mind that he wanted to be like Jesus and just live his life for Him.  Now, that's a good thing to have as a goal and with that kind of goal, Fred made some good progress.

I ran into Fred the other day and he told me he'd learned something about becoming like Christ that might interest me.  He's read my Blog I guess cause when he mentioned to me what was going on my interest was piqued.  He told me he'd been listening to an old Eric Clapton song and one of the lyrics went like this:  "I don't care how much it costs, I don't even count the loss.  I just want to see your face again."  That's an awesome line, I'll have to admit.  Fred asked me, "Bob, are you willing to not count the loss that it will cost you to follow Christ whole heartedly?"  I'll have to admit, it made me pause.  "Sure, Fred, I'm willing.  How about you"?  Of course he was.

Here's the little didley Fred shared with me.  "Bob, there can be no vision of God without purity of heart. Jesus said 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.'" I hid my disappointment.  I thought he was going to give me some kind of secret code he'd found in the Scriptures.  Everyone knows they are there for the really spiritual people to find.  I can't seem to find them and I was hoping Fred would get me started.  Everyone knows the Bible verse he quoted to me--it's from the Beatitudes. Anyway, Fred continued and said, "It's really simple, seeing God."  "Really?  It hasn't been that simple for me."  He went on and shared this:  "We believe things because of our reasonings.  If something makes sense and is in the realm of possibility, we believe it, right?"  "Yea, that sounds right."  "So," Fred continued, "why is it we find ourselves unbelieving when it comes to spiritual realities."  "I dunno.  Maybe we are slow."  "It's true you are slow, but that's not the problem.  The problem is the passions within us that fight against purity."  "You want to see God but you spend all your energy trying to get enough money up to buy some shiny thing that dazzles you."  "You get sidetracked by them ."  "And, you are so busy checking out the girls coming into church you can't concentrate on Christ."  "Plus, you say you love God but when it comes time to pray you seem to be too busy with other things."  "Let me make this simple:  I'll give you a list":

You point in judgment of others instead of praying for their spiritual needs
You are always out to prove you are right instead of being non-argumentative
You're prone to wanting service for yourself instead of giving yourself to serve others
Instead of promoting others, you are out to be number one
You want recognition instead of confessing your unworthiness before God
When someone is promoted above you, you are offended instead of rejoicing at their good fortune
When's the last time you prayed for your enemy?
Are you still trying to be "cool"?

"Do you wanna keep going with this list or are you catching on"?   "Yea," I said, "I think I'm catching on.  All these things seem to come out of pride and pride always lifts up self.  What do you do with that"?  Fred was quick to respond.  "Humility, Bob.  We are to humble ourselves.  Remember what Jesus told the servant to say after he had done everything his master had told him to do, including cooking and serving dinner after working all day in the hot sun?"  "Refresh my memory.  I might have missed that verse."  "I am an unprofitable servant."   "That's what he was to say."  "Hmm.  Interesting."

"That's the beginning to seeing God.  When we see ourselves as God sees us; repent of our pride and then humble ourself, our vision begins to clear up and we will then see God." 

I had to admit, Fred Farkle wasn't as big a duffus as I thought he was.  The whole time he was going on with that list he had a tear in his eye.  That told me right there that I had a real friend in Fred and Fred and I were going to have more discussions about all this.  Next time we play tennis, I might even let him beat me to show how humble I'm becoming.