As he climbed into his car to leave that Sunday morning "service" he flipped on his satellite radio while checking his bluetooth connection before making a phone call when he was caught off guard by the song playing over the speakers, "Would you know my name/If I saw you in heaven?/Would you feel the same/If I saw you in heaven?/I must be strong and carry on/cause I know I don't belong here in heaven..."
It was Eric Clapton singing about the 1991 death of his son, Conor. As the song continued to play he began to think about the big questions in life, is there any meaning and purpose for our life on earth beyond personal happiness? Is there life after death? If so, will we recognize one another in the next life? Is there a heaven and hell? How do I assure myself of a place in heaven?
He had hoped he might have found the answers to some of these questions in the church he had just left but instead he had experienced a place that appeared irrelevant and detached from the world in which he lived. Reflecting on the song playing on the radio he recalled Clapton being interviewed on Larry King and stating that he stopped singing this song in 2004 because he felt he had moved past the loss. "But," he wondered to himself, "did he ever truly find peace?"
Grabbing his iPhone he posted a tweet which was linked to his Facebook account, "Wondering about the meaning of life?"
As he pulled out of the parking lot the song on the radio switched over to Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me." He began to sing along and soon forgot about the questions that troubled his mind just a few moments before.
