The Good Life (Part 1) - Chuck Colson

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The Good Life (Part 1) - Chuck Colson
The Good Life (Part 2) - Chuck Colson

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The Good Life

Day 1 of 2

Guest: Chuck Colson

From the Series: Coming to Grips With Grace

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Bob: Does it seem to you that people today appear interested in spiritual things, but when you start talking about authentic biblical Christianity, they tune you out? Here's Chuck Colson.

Chuck: We live in a time what's called "post-modernism," which means there is no truth, everything is relative, so there's no standards, no yardsticks, nothing to measure your life by, and what I'm saying to people is, "Yeah, that's where the secular world is." And if we hit them with a Bible, they're going to turn away. They're just going to say, "Here comes one of these people preaching at us. This is the Bible Belt." But if you start talking to them about the meaning of their lives and where they're going to find fulfillment in life, you can engage them.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, August 29th. Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. We'll talk about how to engage the culture in a spiritual conversation with our guest, Chuck Colson, today.

And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us. You know, it's not often when somebody comes to faith in Christ that it makes national news headlines. But I remember back when I was – I guess I was in high school or in college when the news came that Chuck Colson had found Christ, and the reason I remember it is because, honestly, if I'm telling the truth, I was kind of cynical about the whole thing, and I thought, "Oh, yeah, I bet he found Christ." You know, the guy is trying to get out of a prison term, and he thinks maybe religion will help him out a little bit with that. Did you think – do you remember hearing about it?

Dennis: I do. And, frankly, I remember having some of those same thoughts, and he joins us on the broadcast. It was the real deal. Chuck, I’m glad it wasn't a fake.

Chuck: Thirty-two years ago, if it was a fake, I've certainly maintained it over these years. But you guys weren't alone. I mean, 90 percent of the world believed I was just looking for sympathy.

Bob: Well, and Larry King has said to you – he has been impressed by – he's been witnessed to by the fact that you persevered in your faith.

Chuck: Every time I have an interview with Larry King over the years, and I've had many of them, he would say, "You know, I just am so impressed. You keep doing this." And a number of the secular interviewers will say, "You're really doing something with your life that I should have been doing in my life." Dan Rather said that to me this past spring.

So maybe that's the witness, and when you say publicity, goodness, most of our listeners won't remember Eric Sevareid or Walter Cronkite, but they devoted almost an entire broadcast on CBS News to my conversion. It was bigger news than Watergate, because it was so improbable. "The Boston Globe" said "If Mr. Colson can find God and be forgiven, there is hope for everybody."

Dennis: And there is.

Chuck: And there is. My life proves that.

Dennis: There really is. You write in your book, you just released a new book called "The Good Life." You mentioned that this book is like looking in a rearview mirror.

Chuck: Yeah, it is.

Dennis: And you're looking back over how you describe a tumultuous life. You know, if you would have said that to me 25 years ago, Chuck, I'd have said, "Well, yeah, maybe you, because of where you came from, being with Nixon in the White House and going to prison and all the fallout of making national news with a crime," but you know what? Now, being 57 years old, I understand what you mean. Life is tumultuous and looking back over it, we can live a good life if we have our hope in the right place.

Chuck: Yes, it's true. Everybody thinks that you can go through life, and it's a breeze. People who haven't had a major crisis in life, people who haven't fallen on their face, just have to wait for their turn, because it will happen. You think you've got life all together, the world rolls over on top of you.

But I've tried to write this book – you're quite right – looking at my life through the rearview mirror. I'm 73 years old. You learn a lot; you learn a lot from your own experiences; you learn from your own failures, which I've had my share, certainly; and you learn from the lessons of other people's lives. And so "Born Again" was written prospectively. I told the story of my conversion, coming out of politics, coming to Christ, going to prison, and that was sort of a forward look at a new life in Christ.

Now, 32 years later, let's look back and see what really happened – what worked out, what didn't work out. And I wrote this basically – I think you fellows know, I wrote it principally for seekers. People today are searching for questions about meaning and purpose and what is life all about and how do I find my fulfillment and why am I here and what's my purpose, what am I going to do with my life? So I wrote this, hopefully, because my life has been such a rollercoaster, up and down, that people would look at my life and then learn some of the lessons that I've learned, and it leads you to only one place, as all of us know.

Bob: Well, it's interesting, because as I started reading through this book, I had the thought this is your Ecclesiastes.

Chuck: Yes, it is – vanity, vanity and striving after the wind, precisely.

Bob: All of life is that until you come to the end, and...