Recently I received an e-mail reminding me of a summer I spent in Oregon half a century ago. Fifty years ago, in the summer of 1961, I served as a chaplain and cave guide at Oregon Cave National Park. Four or five times a day, seven days a week, during my three months there, I guided groups of tourists on an hour and a half tour of the cave. It was my job as cave guide to point out stalactite, stalagmite and flowstone formations, fungus and algae, bats and all the other material, plant and animal life in the cave.

Toward the end of the tour, we'd come to a large room -- about one-third the size of a football field. The room was 3,300 feet into the cave (more than a half mile) and 186 feet below the surface of the ground. When everyone was in position in the room, we would turn off the lights and show people what that portion of the cave was really like in its natural condition … in total darkness.

Having left the most creative and inventive century in all of human history and now being a full decade into what has the potential of being a more creative and more inventive century, what role is left for religion in such a “brilliant and self-sufficient” humanity? Now into my seventh decade on this planet earth, I cannot remember a time when religious beliefs and Biblical ethics and morality have been under such frontal attack from so many venues. What then is the role of religion in this Orwellian Period of human history?
We know there is a role, for even the most casual observer can see what the movement away from religious belief and Biblical ethics and morality has done to this world and nation in which we live. Though many people still try to live by their religious beliefs and the ethics and morality that comes with our beliefs, there is enough attack on all things Biblical that we have been left with an open chasm of fear and rootlessness. In many of life’s arenas, humanity is like a house without a foundation.

One of my favorite magazines recently carried a fable about a man and his son who traveled to the marketplace with a donkey.
As they started out, the boy rode the donkey and the man walked alongside. Some passersby shook their heads in dismay.
“The children of today have no respect for their elders,” they said. “Look at that poor man walking while his spoiled son rides.”
The man and his son shifted places. Soon other people passed by and shook their heads in dismay. “Look at that big strong man riding on the donkey while his little boy has to hurry alongside,” they said. “Some parents just don’t care about their children at all. Why do they have them?”
Soon both the father and his son were riding together. Along came another group of people who protested, “How can people mistreat their animals so badly. Imagine, two of them riding the poor donkey.”

Recently I visited some extremely happy friends who had just moved into a new home. They had purchased a lot, selected the style of home they wanted, and then watched the progress of the various craftsmen who transformed the dream of a house into the reality of a home. Periodically, they would drive to the site of their future home, look at the progress and take a few pictures for their scrapbook. When I saw them recently they had just moved into their new home and they were extremely happy because they could now look at the house and say “It is finished.” A real sense of accomplishment!
Early one morning, I began the writing of this column. There were visits and appointments and a variety of tasks that captured my attention during various parts of the day. Late in the afternoon I was finally able to look at the typed manuscript and say “It is finished.” A sense of accomplishment!
Two thousand years ago, God’s Own Son, Jesus The Christ, hung upon a cross suffering and dying for us and, in the last few moments of His agony, Jesus was heard to say, “It is finished.”

It’s Thanksgiving week. And if you’re fortunate, you can look around your Thanksgiving table and see several generations of your family. Of course, as you know, many types of cohesiveness are involved in knitting a family together. But one connection that frequently gets ignored, at least in terms of family dialogue, is the financial linkage between parents and their children on one hand, and these same parents and their parents on the other. So if you find yourself in this “sandwich” group, it may be worth considering your financial position.
If your children are very young, you might want to start by emphasizing the importance of three separate concepts: saving, spending and sharing. If you give them an allowance, or if you pay them to do some minor tasks around the household, you can encourage them to put the money in three separate containers. The “spending” jar is for them to use as they choose, the “saving” jar is to be put in some type of savings or investment account and the “sharing” jar is to be used for contributions to charitable causes. You can extend the spending, saving and sharing themes by encouraging your kids to spend wisely, watch how their savings grow and feel pride in the work done by the charitable groups their dollars support.