Barry's Blog 

Mark Twain once remarked, "I admire the serene assurance of those who have religious faith. It is wonderful to observe the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces." Twain was in many ways tormented much of his adult life, trying to come to grips with his own religious upbringing. In our own day, it is easy for us to become enamored with a sense that this present, temporal world is all that there is.

In many ways, Malcolm Muggeridge, whose conversion to Christianity was later in life, serves as a reliable guide for us.  Muggeridge, educated at Cambridge University, was known internationally as a journalist, broadcaster, and writer for over half a century, He started as an editorial scribe at the Manchester Guardian, before moving to the Soviet Union in 1932, where, as the Guardian's Moscow correspondent, he witnessed in the Ukraine the famine brought about by Stalin: it was the beginning of Malcolm's greatest disillusionment. During the Second World War, he worked in British intelligence alongside such highly individual characters as Graham Greene and Kim Philby. Afterward, he became Washington correspondent for The Daily Telegraph and,…

An interview with Ken Costa conducted by Michael Skapinker of the Financial Times, as part of their ongoing series of interviews, "Lunch With the FT,"  caught my eye recently. The interview is thought-provoking, as it portrays an executive who has achieved much success in the world of business, but also shows a side of Costa that might surprise some - he is a highly committed Christian. Costa serves as an exemplary model at the intersection of both the world of business and the world of faith, a rather rare commodity in our world. Costa recently left UBS, and SG Warburg, its predecessor, where he was employed for more than 30 years, to become chairman of Lazard International, co-running its UK investment banking business.

The interview was conducted at The Ritz Restaurant in London, and Skapinker asked Costa, "So you bought this place?" Costa replied, "My very good friends and clients did," referring to his good friends and investment banking clients, the Barclay twins, Sir David and Sir Frederick, who bought The Ritz in 1995. "I rather like supporting clients. I think it's always useful, you know." It was the great City of London figure, Sir…

"What is more (and I can hardly find words to tell you how important I think this), it is just the people who are ready to submit to the loss of the thrill and settle down to the sober interest, who are then most likely to meet new thrills in some quite different direction. The man who has learned to fly and become a good pilot will suddenly discover music; the man who has settled down to live in the beauty spot will discover gardening."

"This is, I think, one little part of what Christ meant by saying that a thing will not really live unless it first dies. It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill: that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go--let it die away--go on through that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follow--and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time. But if you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them artificially, they will all get weaker and weaker, and fewer and fewer, and you will be a bored, disillusioned old man for the rest of your life."

"It is because so few people understand this that you find many middle-aged men and women maundering about their lost…