Sitting in my padded cell here on the 24th floor of the Bangkok Westin Grande, I see that I have surrounded myself with comfort to try to ease the pain somehow or prevent the suffering of my mortal flesh. A lonely man sits across from me and smokes his cigarette while gently swirling his merlot and staring off into space, trying to pass the time of another lonely business trip to the Orient for a week. Earlier today, the deep-set eyes of the Thai man serving us Peking duck on rice that we bought for 75 cents testify to a hard life on the streets eeking out a living by grovelling for the endless throng of tourists that have been passing his way on the dirty street corner for the last 25 years.

We are all the same man: one lost in a sea of faces, striving for purpose and heart and hope in a meaningless and despairing world that offers nothing but suffering and hardship and loneliness from the cradle to the grave. Or are we?

As I stare off into the endless horizon of high-rise hotels amidst the cluttered streets of shanties and flats from high on the 24th floor, the words of the Kutless song "Sea of Faces" comes to mind. I am convinced that this song was written from this exact seat on this floor at this hotel on a night very similar to this:

I see the city ligths all around me
Everyone's obscure
Ten million people each with their problems
Why should anyone care?

In your arms I can see...
In your arms I will be...

I'm not just a man that's been lost in this world
Lost in a sea of faces
Your body's the bread
Your blood is the wine
Because you traded your life for mine

There it is: the key, the summum bonum of existence: I am not just another man lost in a sea of faces, because I know that the infinite God traded His life for mine. Therefore, He has pronounced my life to be of infinite worth. This is nothing that I have earned, nor is there anything that I do to win His affection.

I have been found and belong to God! Are you lost and alone in a sea of faces, or have you been found? I thank God every day for finding me and rescuing me from this sea of faces. I thank him for trading his son's life for mine and giving him up to death, even death on a cross, for my sake. He has given my life purpose, meaning, and has ransomed me back from eternal death.

This evening, John and I prayed for this city drowning in a sea of faces, for that man who is alone in this hotel tonight, for the maker of our meal today; that they would find the one who alone can rescue them from meaninglessness and despair.