Finding inner peace and security
Part 3: In God we trust – but can we trust him?
Yet, our age is Godless because many feel that they looked behind the façade of religion and found that to be hollow. They are bereft of inner peace and security precisely because they lost hold of God. Except that, for many, it was not that they abandoned the true and living God, but they came to a decision that the image of God which they had taken to be him was a false image. In their mind’s eye, instead of their hand being held securely in God’s hand to stop them from falling, they sensed that when they let go of God’s hand, it was him who fell into a dark chasm, a phantom willingly shed, evaporating into thin air, and no great loss.
Time has passed of course, and for some their rejection of God is a lazy, shallow rejection of an image of God that bears no resemblance to what religious people actually believe – a mere rejection of a caricature – which I reject too. For some, God is such an outlier in their lives that they barely ever come across a mention of him, let alone consider the possibility of his reality. And for some, it has been the sad letting go of a beautiful dream from childhood or early adulthood, that dispersed in the light of cold, clear thought.
So, it’s unacceptable to replace a void in the human heart by believing in a lie. If secular society has a terrible hollowness behind its brittle façade, we don’t want to simply replace that with the façade of a God that many find impossible to believe in. Yet the signs are all around us of a deep loss of meaning and purpose, expressed both in individual despair and desperate seeking after panaceas, and in the absence of the grounds for consensus in society. These can be provided in the simple belief that I am loved by God – and so is everyone else. This is the grounds for unity, justice and compassion in society: as I revel in the gifts of God’s loving kindness, his gracious forgiveness, his passionate concern for those who suffer, and desire all these gifts for myself, so I must also accept that every other person is also a child of God.
Spiritual Devotion 