"Absolute futility"

My family recently spent a couple of days in a small city famous (or infamous, depending upon your perspective) for its acceptance and promotion of New Age philosophies.  Stores and shops abound that cater to books, clothing, counseling services, and so forth that reflect and promote these philosophies.  Several of the citizens also have the modern-day "hippie" appearance that is often associated with the New Age lifestyle.

Being the deep thinker that I am, I was struck by the profound thought at one point about how these folks, just like me, are seeking answers through spiritual means.  However, unlike me, they are looking to every form of spirituality apart from that set out in the Bible.  (As an aside, New Agers that do look to the Bible minimize Jesus to the status of prophet or 'wise teacher' as opposed to the one and only representative of God in the flesh - and one and only mediator between God and mankind - that the same Bible describes Jesus as.)

With this thought in mind, I looked around and wondered how their spiritual quest was working for them.  What I saw is the same thing I see everywhere else:  people who were no closer to finding answers than those not seeking spiritual answers.  If they were finding answers, there wouldn't be the diversity of paraphernalia and services that the New Age movement provides to its followers.  Instead of a multitude of books on eastern religions and philosophies, there would be only one source like the Bible is for believers in the one true God.  It seems instead that New Agers have no one source for answers, which makes their quest nothing more than a crap-shoot of try-this and try-that until a person finds what 'works best for them', even though most answers are never found and any feelings of peace and fulfillment last only for a time.

And the saddest part is that no god or gods or philosophy they choose to follow apart from the God of the Bible can usher them into an eternal existence after this one of bliss and oneness with their Creator that most of these folks seem to be longing for.

Some people might argue that if Christianity and the Bible alone provided all the answers, there wouldn't be the enormous diversity of denominations, books, and ministries devoted to providing answers to its followers and followers-to-be. But any of these things that are truly Christian have as their foundation the one source - the Bible - that is able to allow them to provide answers.  They simply seek to break down and explain the teachings of the Bible in ways that an enormous diversity of personalities can try to understand.

As I watched people go about their daily life in this city, I thought of the opening passage of the book of Ecclesiastes, authored by a man perhaps never excelled in wisdom and wealth by anyone else in history.  Most Biblical translations from the original Hebrew and Aramaic into English use the word "vanity" in  verse 2 of Chapter 1 as follows:

"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher; Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." (NKJV, New King James Version)

However, a newer translation that claims to have benefitted from more recent advances in translational accuracy renders this verse in a more interesting way:

"Absolute futility," says the Teacher.  "Absolute futility.  Everything is futile." (HCSB, Holman Christian Standard Bible)

In other words, as I watched those citizens of this city who hold to the New Age philosophy, I thought of their absolute futility, the total pointlessness of their trying to seek spiritual answers outside of those provided in the Bible.  I could just tell by their behaviors and the looks on their faces that they 'still hadn't found what they were looking for.'  I knew this because they were just like me many years ago, although I was agnostic and proud of it, seeking answers and never finding them - or at least the right ones - and going through the turmoil and depression that characterizes those who seek but never find.  Even though they tried to hide it, again I could see it on their faces and by how they behaved.

Jesus, however, invites everyone (drug-free or not, virgin or not, criminal or not, rape victim or not) to

"Keep asking, and it will be given to you.  Keep searching, and you will find.  Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you ... If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:7, 11)

It would seem to me that no other spiritual leader in history ever offered such a promise to anyone!  This passage, when taken in context with the surrounding verses, seems to indicate that God is promising answers to those who ask Him, to those who

"... seek Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Deuteronomy 4:29)

But Jesus makes it clear that He is the only means - the only mediator - through which we are supposed to come to God (see I Timothy 2:5), and not just to find answers:

"Everyone who drinks from this water [in the well] will get thirsty again.  But whoever drinks from the water that I will give them will never get thirsty again - ever!  In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life." (John 4:13-14)

Again, taken in context, this passage not only indicates that Jesus will provide answers, but also peace and satisfaction and the ultimate: eternal life.  He alone provides the "nirvana" sought by Hindus and Buddhists that they will never find.  He alone provides the "paradise" sought by pleasure-seekers that they also will never find.

So I guess to avoid futility, you need to choose who or what you will believe and serve.  Will you ignore or reject the God of the Bible and live in futility, never truly finding what you're looking for, or will you accept this God and find answers and lasting peace?  Obviously, the choice is yours since God is not a tyrant but a gentlemen who doesn't force Himself on anyone.

"As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)

Perspective changes everything

Before choosing the small-town life, I lived the first 33 years of my life in a city of nearly one million people. After going for several weeks without any sort of trip out of town, I would begin to forget that this city was actually an island in the middle of the prairie with no city larger than it for nearly a thousand miles. Until I actually got out of it and spent some time away, I would almost forget just how out of place it seemed in its vast, sparsely populated surroundings. In other words, it took a change of perspective for me to realize that I really didn't live in an urban environment as much as I was actually living in an island in the midst of a vast rural expanse.

We humans have the same lack of true perspective about who we really are. Many of us think and act as though somehow the world revolves around us, as though it's entirely subject to how we think and act. Yet only once you get up in an airplane or climb to the top of a mountain and look down upon whatever we have created do you realize just how tiny and powerless we actually are. Even though our influence looks expansive and powerful in the form of infrastructure and development like roads and fields and buildings, it takes only one swipe of the hand of nature for people to (temporarily) realize that they really aren't so mighty after all.

The same realization happens when people with immense fame, power, and/or wealth succumb to illness, disease, or untimely death and no amount of money is able to help them. And even if they overcome for a time, they eventually experience the same uncontrollable, unconquerable fate of all humans: death.

Yet despite constant reminders that we are subject to forces infinitely more mighty than us that we have absolutely no way of controlling, we continue to act as though we're invincible. We have this rebellious spirit toward the outside forces that control us as though we'll someday conquer them or be free from their control. We continue to climb treacherous mountains and build taller buildings in vain attempts to defy the force of gravity. We continue to explore hostile environments in vain attempts to conquer the forces of nature. And we propose theories, write books, and form conferences and committees that actively and purposely seek to undermine the belief by some humans that we are created beings, created by a mighty and unfathomable force that in the English language has been given the name of "God".

Forty or so proponents of this belief, over the course of nearly two millennia, claimed to have been spoken to and even visited by this God and recorded their encounters in numerous books that were eventually coalesced into one volume and given the title of "The Bible". In this Bible, there are numerous accounts of people who thought the world revolved around them or were invincible, only to be put in their place by this mighty God who these authors claim is not only the creator of these people, but also of the world and the entire universe. Some of the people most famously humbled by this God include Job, Jonah, and Saul of Tarsus (later named Paul).

These people realized the hard way just how tiny and powerful they were once they encountered this God, causing the likes of Isaiah and Saul to cower in fear, awe, and reverence. They had a radical change of perspective to the point where they tirelessly stood up for God in the face of ridicule, torture, and even death by those who had not encountered Him. They stood up because they knew that He who they had encountered and experienced was for real. They had experienced a miniscule taste of His indescribable power and realized that they really weren't so mighty after all.

The next time you look at the sun, ask yourself what is keeping our planet from being drawn into its fiery inferno. The next time you draw a breath, ask yourself what will allow your lungs to draw the next breath. The next time you curl and uncurl your fingers, ask yourself what series of physiological, biochemical, and neurological processes and components are responsible for this ability plus how they came to be.

In our modern age, phenomena like these are only considered from the scientific perspective and all other perspectives - especially spiritual - are ignored and even ridiculed.  This perspective does not take anything seriously that cannot be quantified, i.e. touched or counted or measured, and will dismiss experiences and emotions for this reason, such as the radical psychological and emotional transformations that countless people have reported throughout history once they've truly opened up to and experienced this God.

Yet this scientific perspective that its proponents claim has all the answers clearly does not.  In fact, an honest scientist would admit that at both the macroscopic level (ex. the universe) and the microscopic level (ex. atomic particles and structures), technological advancements have revealed a vastness and complexity to our universe and world never remotely imagined even a decade ago.  As one school of thought puts it, our universe and world are "irreducibly complex".

So while those who adhere to the scientific perspective find themselves uncovering more questions than answers with each passing minute, people who have decided to view life from the Christian perspective - at least in my experience - have found more of the bigger questions being answered:  I know why I was created.  I know the One who created me.  I know the meaning life.  I also know my fate - and those of non-believers - after this life.  And the list goes on.

Perspective changes everything.  Because I see myself as truly helpless and powerless apart from God, I know who to turn to when life gets tough.  My "crutch" has helped me through numerous struggles that those who say they don't need a "crutch" like God can't seem to find their way through.  Or if they do, it's often at a tremendous cost emotionally, physically, and/or financially.

Sure, I put a good effort into everything I do - God gave me a brain and hands and feet, after all - but I stop when I perceive that I'm on a path that God doesn't want me to be on.  By doing so, I save an incredible amount of stress and emotional investment in things that are a waste of time and energy so that I can focus on the more important things in life - God, family, friends, (this blog!), etc.

You can continue to plod along with the mindset that you're big and tough enough to conquer any obstacle (even though, once again, you'll never conquer death), or you can realize that you're really not so big and tough after all and that God's help will get you through the struggles of this life.  And to top the cake, the Bible also explains how you can enjoy God's presence forever when this life is over.   But this realization takes a change of perspective, and this can only be achieved by having an open mind to the idea that the God whom the authors of the Bible wrote is truly for real.  Actually, this open-mindedness takes faith, and you can read more about this in other posts of this blog.