What is real? And what is good? Those two questions, according to Dallas Willard, professor of philosophy at The University of Southern California in Los Angeles can help us think about what is at stake for us personally in this amazing journey we call life.
In an interview for an future Day of Discovery program on “The Search for Meaning”, the professor went on to say that when we reflect on the meaning of what is real we are asking, “What can I count on? Or, what will I run into if I’m wrong? That’s not a bad definition of reality”, he suggests. ” It’s what you run into when you’re wrong.”
Interestingly, when I recently went to a Dallas Willard webpage, I found a quote in the upper right hand corner of the page says, “In Him was Life and that Life is the Light of the World.”
Someone who didn’t know where that quote came from might wonder if this was supposed to be a characterization of the professor. If so, imagine how philosophically or spiritually outrageous it would sound.
Yet, when John’s Gospel talks about One who is Life, Light, and the Light of the world (John 1:1-4), we find ourselves confronted with One who seems to deserve a second look.
John goes on to describe a day when Jesus said such amazing things about himself that many of his followers walked away in confusion and disbelief. At that point, according to John, the Teacher turned to the Twelve and said, “Are you going to leave too?” To this Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You alone have the words that give eternal life.” (John 6:67-68).
In a day when we are so apt to be disillusioned with others, and in those moments when we realize that it is the height of self-delusion to think that we ourselves are “the light of the world”, can we do better than to turn our eyes back to the only One seems to be at the end and beginning of an honest search for “what is real” and “what is good”… ?
Who else could say with so much evidence to believe him: “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” Jesus