This past week renowned Fox News journalist Charles Krauthammer lost a battle with cancer. But Mr. Krauthammer gave up the fight a few weeks ago, writing that he had done what he was meant to do. I could not help but admire his stoicism as he faced the end.

The night after his death, I watched with interest as Fox rehashed Krauthammer’s amazing life, illustrating his brilliance at every turn. I particularly was intrigued with his view of God.

“I don’t believe in God,” he said with an honest smile, “but I fear him greatly.”

That paradoxical quote gripped me this week as I thought of his conclusion about life, and I even lamented that he had failed to come to an understanding of the greatest truths known to man. There is a deep sadness in his quote about God, but it is curiously refreshing as well.

It is refreshing that he was honest enough to admit that he really could not figure out this phenomenon of God. He could not deny categorically God’s existence. The dilemma of a power much higher than we and the empirical evidence the eye cannot reasonably deny were far too great for this honest man to dismiss with a wave of the hand.

Krauthammer had spent many long nights, no doubt, gazing at the stars and studying the vastness of the solar system. What was there was far too big for his understanding. Unlike some atheists who arrogantly lash out at the thought of God, Mr. Krauthammer seemed to long to know more. But there was a threshold in his thinking that blocked his ability to grasp the God of the Bible.

One discipline seemed to evade him forever: the discipline of faith. Even though he dabbled in Judaism, he never seemed able to lay aside human reasoning and intellect and grasp Jesus Christ, putting all his hope, faith and dreams into the Rock of Ages. He knew that when he looked into the vastness of the universe he was looking into an awesome infinity, but he never understood that the answer to the infinity problem is God. His final conclusion came in the form of a question instead of an answer.

That honest men could come to the place where Peter comes years ago, posing a different question and giving a different answer: “Lord,” says Peter, “to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

Like Krauthammer, he looks into the eyes of infinity and faces a life-defining question. Peter’s is, “To whom shall we go?”

Krauthammer’s answer was to go to good works. Peter chose to go to the good shepherd.