Recently two childhood friends found themselves reunited by a chance meeting at the waters edge of a city port. Both men stood in silent solitude, each considering the years that had passed since their last encounter and each considering their faith.

The first, now an eminent theologian and articulate Christian apologist, looked upon the second, an aging cynic with constantly changing and esoteric beliefs. While considering this old man and showed gratitude to God in his heart by saying, ‘I thank thee Lord that I have not turned out like this wayward pilgrim who lives with such a distorted and inadequate view of you’.

The second man however did not consider the first at all, but rather cast his eyes toward the vast expanse of heaven and began to pray thus to God, ‘Forgive me Lord that I should be so cast adrift’. Then, looking out to sea, he continued, ‘I am overwhelmed by the vastness of your being and feel as one who has spent their days upon an ocean liner, sailing aimlessly at sea. In this ship I have spent too many days at the parties and grand formals, feasting upon all that I could. Yet now, as I approach the twilight of my years, I stand alone on the rain drenched deck, looking out to the distant horizon with longing for home’.