Driving Cab:Chapter Thirty-Eight

Driving Cab: Chapter Thirty-Eight

     “You still going to that Bible College?” I ask the preacher at a break in his monologue.

     “I hope to return to school next year,” he tells me, and asks if I’ve heard about the driver who is pulling a twice a month Vegas trip. I nod my head no and he goes into a rapid description of the details of the Vegas trip. I remember that he takes a lot of kidding from a number of drivers about his religious fever. I remember an earlier conversation when we sat together for an hour or so. He told me that he had accepted Christ as his personnel savior. That in doing so, he had reserved salvation for his soul. He explained that no one could be saved unless they accepted the literal revelation of God through his son Jesus Christ. When I questioned the validity of a literal interpretation, he changed the subject to trip talk.

     “Jensen drops him off at the main entrance to the Vegas Hilton, parks his cab, meets him at the dice table, gambles a little with the fare’s money, and then goes off on his own…” The Preacher tells me.

    “Dat is some trip. He gets it twice a month?” I ask to show that I’ve been listening.

    “Yea, Mr. Farrago doesn’t like to fly. He wants someone else to do the driving. Wants to leave whenever he’s ready… Boy, I don’t know how Jensen got so lucky.”

    I try to picture Jensen’s face. He’s a big happy go lucky guy who doesn’t seem to have a care in the world. He plays different stands from me and I’ve only seen him a couple times.

    “It was just luck, you know, that he got the trip. He picked up Mr. Farrago in the bar of the Claremont Hotel. Can you believe it? Can you believe it? The guy asked Jensen to drive him to Vegas. Just like that. Just on the spur of the moment. Jensen calls in going to Vegas and shuts his radio off.”      

    “Was it luck? Or was it Jensen’s destiny? How much of what we do is just luck? I mean, look at your own life. You want to become a minister. Was that your own choice? Are there other powers that make up the course of your life? I often ask myself…”

    “There is only one power guiding our lives, the power of God through his son Jesus Christ. I certainly choose to take Jesus Christ as my personal savior. It has to be a personal choice, your acceptance of Jesus into your heart,” the Preacher tells me.

    “It’s hard to figure. Is it God that guides the events and circumstances that make us choose how we choose? Can we make a choice that isn’t predetermined by the events that lead up to it? Do we ever act spontaneously? How much freedom do we have? How do we know that we are following the way?”

    “If you are a Christian, that’s not a problem. Your life is guided by the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I will make you fisher’s of men if you follow me. His teachings are written in the holy Bible. It’s only when you follow the scriptures that you can live a personal … a life of personal choice.”

    “But, the words of Jesus are not crystal clear. Your interpretation of what Jesus said is not the same as my interpretation. Didn’t Jesus say that the kingdom of heaven is within you? Didn’t he say that each man must find his way to God by looking inward?”

    “Jesus said that I am the way the truth and the light. No man cometh on to the Father but by me. Unless you go through that personal experience, you can’t know the teaching of Jesus. You can’t find the way to heavenly salvation. You can’t come face to face with God.”

    “Does that mean that all non-Christians are doomed to eternal hell and damnation?”

    “They have the chance to accept Jesus as their personal savior. Jesus opens his arms to all men.”

    “Yea, what about the millions who were born before Jesus? What about those who choose to follow the teachings of Buddha or Mohammed or some other religious leader?” I ask as a pair of shapely legs catches my eye.

    “Listen, I don’t want to argue with you about the teachings of Jesus. You’re just like the other drivers. You’re not really interested in accepting Christ as your personal savior. Just because you’re better educated…”

      “No, I don’t accept Jesus in the same way you do, but I do agree with most of his teaching,” I say as I follow the legs up to her faded Levi cut offs.

      “Jesus said whoever looketh on a woman to lust after her committed adultery in his heart… You know how those airport regulars are. Every girl they see they ask, ‘How’d you like to go to bed with that?’”

     My eyes cling to the girl’s behind for a second more before I turn to face the preacher. “Didn’t Jesus say that we should love one another? Isn’t Love one of the basic tenets of Christianity? You call yourself a Christian. Do you have Love in your heart? Do you practice Love in your daily life? What about the other night at the ‘Port? Everybody was talking about how you made dat guy walk to the Hilton rather than take the shoot down. Was that the Christian thing to do?”

     “I didn’t make him walk. I told him there was a free Hilton bus. I was trying to save him money. He decided himself to walk rather than wait for it.”

     “How about the blood bank a couple weeks ago? Was It the Christian thing to let the next out driver sleep while you spotted in front of him?”

    “I wasn’t the only one who pulled in front of him. Besides, my trip only went to Merritt Hospital. He got a San Leandro when that other driver woke him up.”

     “You really feel that you’re following the example that Jesus set in his own life?”

     “I know that I am a Christian. I’m not perfect, but I know that I’ve been saved. I know if someone came up to me and put a gun to my head… If someone said I’ll shoot you if you don’t denounce Christianity, I know I would let him shoot me.”

     “Oh, come on now,” I tell the driver next to me as our eyes meet. “You don’t really believe that do you?”

     “Yes, I would die rather than denounce Christianity. I know my reward would be eternal life in Heaven. I’m not afraid to die. No one who has Jesus in his heart is afraid of death.”

    “Can you fear life and not fear death? Did Jesus say that man should postpone his acts until after death? How about here and now? Is our life right now our reward for living? Isn’t God in everything we do?”

    The preacher shakes his head and turns his eyes from me. “You’re just like all the others. You’re not interested in taking Jesus into your heart. You’re just making fun. Jesus said, In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. He said, I go to prepare a place for you. Our life is not of this world, but of the world to come…”

    “I’m not trying to make fun… The world to come is here and now. Jesus didn’t mean for man to eschew life. What he was saying is that we must die to the world of ah… you know, materiality… That we must change worlds. That we must be born anew at every given moment… Jesus spoke the Truth. But, the Truth that he spoke gets clouded over by the interpretations of lesser men.”