Skiing with the Dalai Lama
I couldn’t quite believe the headline, yet it turned out to be absolutely genuine. In The Week Douglas Preston gave an hilarious account of the week in 1991 when he hosted the Dalai Lama in Santa Fe, New Mexico. One day the Dalai Lama said he would like to see skiing – and that is what they did, with the monks riding the chair lift in their robes. He was delighted and fascinated with every aspect of skiing, almost like a child. How quickly we lose our sense of wonder. Should we not delight more in God’s world?
He also gave himself to everyone he met. Preston recalls, “He did in fact stop and talk to anyone, no matter how many people were trying to rush him to his next appointment. When he spoke to you, it was as if he shut out the rest of the world to focus his entire sympathy and interest on you.” That is a rare quality, one which most of us struggle to cultivate. I imagine it was like that with the Lord Jesus: he was ‘all yours’.
Late in the day, over cookies and hot chocolate, a waitress finally asked the question everyone had been afraid to ask: “What is the meaning of life?” What a great question! He answered immediately, “The meaning of life is happiness … hard question is what make happiness.” Here, I think, Jesus had a richer answer: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know … the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [he] sent” (John 17:3).