I hadn’t met him yet. Now he was gone.

Three months ago, our property manager found a tenant for our rental property. He was a 21-year-old musician and athlete applying for my apartment while he figured out his next steps in life.

Before moving in, he wanted to do one more trip up north with a friend. This decision would prove to be tragic.

An unexpected windstorm, a poorly equipped canoe, and a series of unfortunate events later and the young man had died.

We cancelled the lease. As we put the deposit check into the mail, I thought of the boy’s mom on the other side of the address. A woman about to bury her own son.

The sadness came. And then the question.

What did his life mean? What do any of our lives mean?

We plan, we dream, we assume eighty years or so, but each one of us lives on the edge of eternity.

What's the purpose of it all?

I first asked this question in college.

My College Struggle

There’s not a reason young adults question their beliefs in college - there’s many. There’s the agnostic kid across the hallway (who’s a better person than you). There’s the classes that seem to explain all mysteries of the universe but don’t seem to mention the God in charge of it all.

More than anything it’s the unique choices set before students every day - and what lay behind them.

For me, daily decisions were the tips of massive icebergs, each with their own set of assumptions about life and the world.

For instance, I could probably get drunk and hook up with someone at a party. But could I safely assume Christianity isn't true, its sexual ethics don't apply, and there's no consequences in this life or the next?

Or I could go to a faith meeting and sing songs of worship and praise to God. But what an insane thing to do if we're just advanced apes trying to survive and reproduce in a cold, indifferent universe.

Everything - friends, hobbies, career choices and calendar were ready to fall into line depending on what I believed to be true. I might be confused as hell (which I was), but the dividing lines between opposing lifestyles will never be more clear.

Behind everyday options are deep questions that deserve years of careful thought. In college, though, this is Thursday night. Your choice.

For me, college was an incredible, formative, and agonizing time. Underneath my education and social life, a war was quietly raging;. The war was between competing worldviews and I was the battlefield. My simple Lutheran upbringing came into conflict with my secular surroundings. Only one ideology would be going home alive.

Fast forward to today, and I’m on the fast track towards being an old guy. The deep internal struggle has slowly been replaced by a tentative confidence as I’ve read, studied and prayed my way through the last fifteen years.

For many Americans, though, the battle for what to believe is reaching a fever pitch.

The American Struggle

We are at a turning point in America.

The cultural tailwind that Christianity has enjoyed since the birth of our nation has become a formidable headwind almost overnight. In the last twenty years, the number of practicing Christians has been cut in half (1 in 2 has become 1 in 4), while the "nones" (atheists, agnostics with no religious belief ) have doubled.

These are massive changes. More incredible than the scale of the changes is the speed at which they’ve come. This isn’t a slow generational change. Baby boomers and Gen-Z alike are quietly walking away from the faith that has held sway in the western world for the last two millenia.

We are witnessing a majority of Americans quietly remaking the deepest parts of themselves.

What is behind these shifts? Where will they lead us? How do we think through these big questions?

Where we’re Going

First, a confession: the posts on this blog so far have been a bit of a warm-up.

I really do love bikes and index funds. But finances and transportation are just window dressings on a worldview. It's time to start laying the foundation - what is life all about? What's the point?

Over the next few posts, I want to dig into the topic that I’ve been thinking about for the last fifteen years: Faith in the 21st century

Does God Exist?
Is Faith important?
Why should I believe?
What does faith look like in the digital age?
Why is society shifting so much and so fast?
What about [insert objection here]?

I'm not a pastor or a priest. I’m not a paragon of moral virtue or a brilliant philosopher. All I have is my own story, the perspective of a guy who’s descended into the shadowy valley of doubt only to re-emerge on mountaintop of faith.

Over the years, I’ve dizzied myself with confusion and trembled as the foundations below my feet felt ready to open up and swallow me whole.

The hope of heaven, the fear of hell, the dread of eternal nothingness are not strangers.

And yet, somehow, I've come out on the other side.

I don't know if my words can help navigate the fog of life's deepest questions. But if they can, I'm willing to share what light I've found.

Let's go.

Intro: Faith In the 21st Century

My College Struggle

The American Struggle

Where we’re Going

How I Became A Christian

Investing Follow-up: FAQs