Coming to Faith series:
Part Four – A Greater Purpose

This is the final part of the series I’ve been doing on the characteristics of a seeker. What is it that makes a person explore the faith?

“You are here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain but you feel it. You felt it your entire life. There is something wrong with the world but you don’t know what it is. But it’s like a splinter in your mind”
– Morpheus, The Matrix

It’s interesting that a lot of people who start to believe in a supreme being, do so by experiencing a deep sense that there is something greater in life then just what they typically observe in their everyday physical surroundings. They have a yearning for eternity; a desire that there is something beyond this world, simply put… a higher purpose.

Let’s face it, if atheism is true and there is no God, then everything will eventually burn up and die anyway. There is no real purpose in anything because even the survival of the species is a delusional drive that will eventually fade away. Does it really matter if you live a morally good life? yea I guess it makes life easier for yourself and perhaps your neighbor, but does it “really” matter?

Of course Freud would say that people ‘want to believe’ because they need to have a purpose or they will go mad. But let’s look at it another way… why do we have a desire to live on? why do we hear echoes of another world? why do we feel like there is something more? why do we desire eternity? Is it possible that we have this innate longing for a purpose? True meaning is living out the intent of your existence, if there is no meaning, then there is nothing.

It’s important, at least I think so, that the drive for purpose isn’t simply to define meaning for ourselves. Rather, it should be a discovery process. I am not interested in what I want to live for, but what I discover my purpose to be. This is a very important distinction, because in a relativistic mindset, we can simply believe that we must define our own reality. However, if ‘true’ meaning is out there, if reality transcends us and is something objective outside of ourselves, then our purpose is to discover it, not create it. The true seeker looks to find truth, not invent truth. And here I believe… is where the heart of the seeker lies.

Part One: Internal Corruption
Part Two: Wonder
Part Three: Tragedy

Coming to Faith series:
Part Three – Tragedy

This is Part Three of a series that looks at the characteristics of a seeker; someone who is exploring the faith. What are the common themes found in the exploration of a seeker?

Sometimes people come to faith, or find themselves exploring faith because they have experienced a paradigm shift in their lives. An experience that generally comes in the form of tragedy or something horrific. Of course it is common that tragedy also pushes people away from God… they become angry or bitter and can’t believe in a God that would allow such tragedy to happen to them.

At the very least however, tragedy will drive a person to reflect about real meaning and purpose in life. That person is taken out of the normal and into a place of questioning and self realization. The cries of the heart are meant to be heard, and it is out of sorrow that the soul may be awaken.

I am not one who has experienced deep tragedy in my life, so it is difficult for me to think about the psychological impact one encounters. Obviously nobody wants tragedy. But it seems to me that the Christians that I know who are most influential are those that have come from a place of pain. In some weird paradoxical way, tragedy leads to maturity and wisdom.

Part One: Internal Corruption
Part Two: Wonder

Coming to Faith series:
Part Two – Wonder

Another observation that describes a characteristic of a seeker (exploring faith in God), is someone who is intrigued with wonder.

For example, when we are children, we have this beautiful awareness of wonder, like a boy who dreams about worlds with Dragons, and a girl who dreams about Princesses. But when we grow older, we allow hard materialism to jade us from wonder, and we become skeptical of anything beyond the natural world. In fact, we are often told that ‘truth’ is something we can only see and touch – something that is measurable, and other things like stories from the Bible are simply to be contained in a private belief system separated from reality. Chesterton says it best…

“The things I believed most then, the things I believe most now, are the things called fairy tales. They seem to me to be the entirely reasonable things. They are not fantasies: compared with them other things are fantastic. Compared with them religion and rationalism are both abnormal, though religion is abnormally right and rationalism abnormally wrong. Fairyland is nothing but the sunny country of common sense.”
-G.K. Chesteron, The Ethics of Elfland

I am finding that as I grow older, I see the world as highly more complex. And like Chesterton, I don’t disregard the miraculous as simply mythical. In fact, the constant drive of wonder paradoxically leads me even more towards God.

That is not to say that the Atheist doesn’t allow wonder in his/her worldview, but I find that the typical atheist (at least those I’ve read and talked to) like to explain away wonder with science. Likewise a religious person may also explain away wonder by claiming he has all the answers. But a seeker is generally enticed by wonder, thirsty at a sense of transcendence.

It’s important to note that wonder is a little different from mystery. Mystery is the idea that something is unknown, unexplained. There are mysteries in nature. But ‘wonder’ includes a sense of awe, admiration… it is mystery with feeling.

Part One: Internal Corruption

Coming to Faith series:
Part One – Internal Corruption

This is a blog series on what I believe are the touchstones for people coming to faith. What are the conditions that make people start to inquire about the Christian faith? what are the presuppositions that lead people to start searching for God? Basically… what makes someone a seeker?

First off, this is not about finding a formula or psychoanalyzing people. I really don’t care about the science behind it. Certainly the Holy Spirit is involved in someone coming to faith, and I do believe God can and does regenerate people no matter where they are in life. This is simply an observation on my part… a curiosity on the process of transformation towards faith.

In my opinion, step one is simple and yet difficult to accept. Basically… the realization that you and I have a problem. Not a problem like the world stinks and people don’t get along, but an internal problem of corruption. Think about this… If you had an internal recorder that recorded all of your thoughts and feelings for a day, what you think about… or try to resist thinking about, how comfortable would you be if that recording was made public?

The ‘internal’ part is important, because often we either like to blame the external stuff (for example: I’m an angry person because my spouse makes me angry) or we like to blame our character formation on our childhood experiences.

I hope I’m not misunderstood… of course bad life experiences will shape our character. Abuse will trigger long term emotional pain and that may cause us to behave in certain wrongful ways. But… isn’t it true that even those people with the most loved upbringings will still tell you that they have moral problems they battle inside them. That is, If they are honest. I should know… I would consider myself to be one of those people who had a great childhood. So yea, our environment, social experiences, etc… can turn us into ‘bad’ people, but are we bad because of those experiences? or were those simply triggers that bring out the badness?

“You can’t reduce me to a set of influences. You’ve given up good and evil for behaviorism, Officer Starling. You’ve got everybody in moral dignity pants, nothing is ever anybody’s fault. Look at me, Officer Starling. Can you stand to say I’m evil?” — Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

So here’s the touchstone… when you think about the internal problem you have, do you accept it as just part of humanity? do you suppress it? or do you feel some sense of guilt or shame? I would argue that the internal sense of guilt is a natural and proper response. That innate feeling of wrongdoing is telling you that you are morally inferior, you are suppose to be good, but you can see the corruption deep inside you.

It is only when you realize there is a problem, that you start to seek a solution. Only the sick need a doctor right?

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good… Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of the wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it.” – C.S. Lewis