Image via WikipediaTraining PlanPeople are not interested in changing their life to be successful at something they care nothing about. They have been told they can go to heaven to be with God forever. But this is in a uncertain future, not the certain present. They move on to whatever they really care about, making money, etc. They do not have the desire to meet God, so the promise has little effect on their life, unless they start to look at their life. Then purpose, values, meaningfulness and many other factors of life come into focus. These areas are better known as religion.
"Religion, after all, is the serious business of the human race" (Arnold Toynbee, Civilization on Trial).
Religion, the belief in a divine or supernatural power, is a universal cultural trait among humans. Throughout prehistory within the primeval rain forest, a staggering majority of human beings have been and still are prepared to accept belief in a supernatural force superior to themselves. No less a thinker than Albert Einstein once acknowledge that his idea of God included "the presence of a superior reasoning power... revealed in the incomprehensible universe."
"I have noticed a similar phenomenon in Christians today. They can almost invariably make sense of their own history, they can look back over childhood, over early adulthood, over family troubles, over career choices and say, 'I think I see what God was teaching me. I see what he was doing.' They can look at the past and see more than change, they can see growth. Christians need never feel lost in the cosmos, because the Holy Spirit identifies for us our place in the sweep of history; the Spirit assures us of our place in relation to God who loves us as his children. This knowledge of intimate love and purpose comes from Jesus through the Holy Spirit just as it came to the disciples at Pentecost" (Knowing the Face of God-Tim Stafford).
Having a personal relationship with God is truly a requirement if we are truly God's children.
No matter how sophisticated or religiously well-informed we become at our simplest, most emotional level we long to see God. Children ask; "How big is God?" and "What does God look like?" until parents and teachers warn them away from these questions. But none of us ever totally shakes the feeling that some point in time we will meet God. Indeed something deeply hungry is touched by the thought of such a possibility. God is always present, we know, but we wish he were visible.
No comments:
Post a Comment