Obstacles in the Search for God
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However,
anyone who has goals – such as finding God – should acknowledge the obstacles.
And as in times past, there are plenty of them.
One
difference from “back in the day” is that social structures and the popular
culture generally supported faith and religion. Today, evangelicals and other
faith forms may capture a certain amount of public attention – in the area of
politics, for instance – but contemporary Western culture does not support
faith, especially for the young.
The
obstacles about which I’m writing are borrowed from Pope Francis’ “The Joy of
Love,” a papal message about marriage and family released in March. The
document followed meetings of Catholic bishops in 2014 and 2015
on the same subjects.
Living One's Faith
I've written about this exceptional document before and will do so again. I focus on
these obstacles because they apply not only to marriage and family but
generally to the attempt to live one’s faith in today’s world.
(I
don’t subscribe to the idea that modern life is “going to hell in a hand basket,”
by the way. In many ways, conditions and people are better than ever!)
Near
the top of any such list is our society’s extreme
individualism, making it hard to
consider the “common good” over our own interests, needs and desires. Individualism
leads to the question, “What’s in it for me or my group?” It makes compromise
difficult – something that is more and more evident in the political arena –
and increases stress, intolerance and hostility.
Religions,
particularly the Christian faith, are communal. They promote a sense of
belonging, of a common purpose. Spirituality without religion may have an
appeal but is hard to actually pull off. Just as most people need the
motivation and sense of belonging in physical exercise, they also need it in
our communal relationship with God.
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“Where
two or three are gathered in my name,” says Jesus in the Mathew’s gospel,
“there I am in their midst.”
A
related obstacle is a perverted idea of
freedom of choice.
“Freedom of choice makes it possible to plan our lives and to make the most of ourselves,” says Francis’ document. “Yet if this freedom lacks noble goals or personal discipline, it degenerates into an inability to give oneself generously to others.”
Obviously, people of faith and people
searching for God can’t define freedom as “doing what I want.”
Modern life is also, in my opinion, marked
by a failure to find “personal
fulfillment,” a generally useful term to describe our need to make our
lives meaningful. This failure often results in disillusionment among people
who don’t meet their own and others’ expectations, making it harder to relate
to God and others.
A recent report on National Public Radio
said a large percentage of college graduates, for instance, feel no “passion”
about any career or personal goal. The young people interviewed on the
subject felt sad and stressed because they believed something important was missing
from their lives.
It brings to mind the famous saying
attributed to St. Augustine, that great latecomer to religion and searcher for
God: “You have made us for yourself,” Lord, “and our hearts are restless until
they rest in you.”
Last on my list of contemporary obstacles to faith is widespread uncertainty and ambiguity. I like the slogan, sometimes seen on auto bumpers, “Question Everything.” For me, it means that humans must be curious, look for evidence and use our God-given intelligence and logic to better understand the world. But it doesn’t mean that truth and knowledge are found in cynicism or solely in scientific pursuit.
This uncertainty and ambiguity is expressed even in the way we speak. We hedge our bets on many of our statements, peppering them with “sort of” and “like.”
And
many people today refuse to accept that anything is stable or even that truth
exists. It’s “your truth” and “my truth,” as if truth could be thus divided. To
me, “seeking truth” is the equivalent of “seeking God.” If you don’t believe in
truth, how can you believe in its author?
The
good news in all this is that obstacles can be overcome. And, I believe, God is
always there for those who seek him.
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