Assurance for the modern age
Part 12: The two ways have drawn so close, and travel in parallel – cannot the final cross-over be made? No matter, you have enough, but long for more.
I think we should examine this sense of encounter with God further, for, earlier, I suggested that the (very best) of secular and religious ideologies are very similar – except that religion adds a sense of relationship with God, which overcomes any sense of aloneness. We should now consider this much more positively, for the religious claim is that we can encounter the living God! This is so much more than the psychological benefit of not feeling alone – vital as that is. I said that my relationship with God is what I cherish most of all, but this hardly does justice to the wonder of the relationship that is on offer. It is impossible to do justice to this, and the best way to get close as an analogy – if you don’t have experience of meeting with God – is probably through the effect of art, music and poetry.
I can allude to what the encounter with God is like. Vitally important, utterly profound statements can be made: meeting with God is being caught up with the eternal and the absolute; it is mixing our contingent, temporary frailty with what is absolute, infinite and perfect. It is the means of overlapping our particular expression of life with universal life in all its fullness, so that the two run concurrently, and, in a great mystery, the specifics of our mortal life become one with the all-embracing, fully-comprehensive life of the divine. In God, we touch the rock and plumb the deepest depths; we reach sublime heights and see all from the mountain top, no longer obscured, or veiled, or partial. Springs of living water well up within us, cleansing and healing us from all that we regret and from all wounds. We are made whole, filled with joy and peace, enveloped in the love of God, which in its perfection and fullness is both eternal and timeless – to be embraced for one moment is to enter into an eternity of bliss – or, rather, as we are still in time, we experience such joy for only a few moments, yet that moment is so precious as to be worth more than all the rest of life put together.
Such images are the tip of the ice-berg as we people of faith struggle to express the fullness of life that God imparts. No matter how inspiring the principles, values, mission and achievement that a secular ideology might bring us – along with the precious human relationships that enrich life beyond measure – I still do not see how it can possibly match the gift that God gives us, when, unexpected or longed for, we hear his voice, “Here I am; you are with me”.
We started off thinking about how secular-minded people might find assurance in the modern age. I have not explored the difficulties enough, for instead I was led to consider the positives of how a secular ideology might bring fulfilment and hope. In doing so, I think we can see the challenging mission that lies before secular people – but I say this as a positive. Yes, the challenge is enormous because the difficulties and dangers are so very great, but, “Thank God!” – sorry, “Thank goodness!” – this challenge exists in order to give people today a path to fullness of life. It is a challenge every bit as great as that faced in the classic religious and spiritual challenge to find salvation. I believe we can see the immense overlap between the secular mission I have outlined and the religious one.
In my view, there is therefore every reason for both principled secularists and religious believers to regard each other as allies and to work together for the common good. There are so many dangers from the forces of evil, and on either side we also have the corrupt versions of religion and the selfish, stupid hedonism of destructive secularism. So, much to do! I do think that I have also shown that the way of religious faith adds an additional wonderful dimension and I would love for secularists to see this, so that they too can revel in the joy and peace that God brings us. Of course, secularists will tend to disagree and think that they are not missing anything. On reflection, I don’t think that this is a case of the religious person offering a gift to the secular person and they reply that they simply don’t want it – perhaps because they don’t value it as a gift; they may even think of it as a negative. Rather, I think it is a case of the secularist “just not seeing it”. As though, even if they decided they wanted the gift, they just “cannot get it” – the religious person says, “Look, there it is; pick it up”, and the secularist says, “Where? I don’t see anything”. This is certainly a mystery. Why do some people have faith and some don’t? I don’t know! I think there is great scope to explore in the idea that faith is not something that you see, but the way that you look – but this is still not getting us beyond the mystery. Why should a secularist look in a certain way if they can see nothing to look at?
What I do feel sure of is that the spiritual life of faith brings assurance – a deep, down stability, trust, hope, optimism, energy, confidence, mission and love. I would love for secularists to discover this for themselves. Yet if, for some mysterious reason, this is beyond reach for them, I hope that they will reach for the assurance that a principled way of life, held entirely within secular values, that I have outlined here, offers.
Spiritual Devotion 