Good Sunday morning! “Taking religion seriously means work. If youre waiting for a road-to-Damascus experience, youre kidding yourself. Getting inside the wisdom of the great religions doesnt happen by sitting on beaches, watching sunsets and waiting for enlightenment. It can easily require as much intellectual effort as a law degree.” — Charles Murray, “Advice for a Happy Life,” The Wall Street Journal, March 30, 2014 I liked Charles Murray’s essay in The Wall Street Journal so much that I did exactly what Random House wanted me to do: I ordered his new book, The Curmudgeons Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Donts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life. I also purchased the movie “Groundhog Day,” because watching it often is one of Murray’s top recommendations for living a happy life. Murray offers insights on love, marriage, and soul mates, but his advice on faith strikes a particular chord. He speaks to recent generations of “high-IQ, college-educated young people.” He writes that they—or “you” if the case may be—have been “as thoroughly socialized to be secular as your counterparts in preceding generations were socialized to be devout.” It wasn’t until his late 40s that Murray began to accompany his wife to church and started reading about world religions. While he still describes himself as an agnostic, he acknowledges, “…my unbelief is getting shaky.” Murray prompted my thoughts on a related concern that has troubled me: The superficiality that appears to dominate culture today. I’m concerned not only because the great cathedrals in Europe are filled with more tourists than worshippers, but also because I suspect that most people have not even made a thoughtful determination to reject faith. The superficial enthusiasms of today’s world suggest that millions are living as unreflectively as possible. Keeping constantly busy, chasing under-examined goals, investing in pursuits that are not really worthy of our efforts and talents, are choices that I, too, embraced. For decades, I performed as a Type A person, but I just didn’t give the bigger picture enough consideration. So many of our most celebrated pursuits fall into the category of superficiality that I won’t offend everyone by getting more specific. One explanation for this is that we will do anything to escape facing and exploring life’s fundamental questions and mysteries. This is a tragic mistake because it robs us of the opportunity to become the authentic, fully evolved person we could be (or, for believers, the person God intended us to be). Murray urges us to “jar ourselves out of unreflective atheism or agnosticism.” He recommends studying cosmology (we will learn that the universe is not what we imagined); getting close to religious people; and reading religious literature. What happened when he, an accomplished Harvard grad, did this? Murray says that even “dabbling at the edges… demonstrated the depths of Judaism, Buddhism, and Taoism,” and he anticipates the same with Islam and Hinduism. He’s developed a greater appreciation for Christianity, his own faith tradition, after taking it seriously. “You’ve got to grapple with the real thing,” he writes. I came to the same realization once I committed to digging deeper than the level of my childhood Sunday School classes. While the faith of a child is enviable, I have studied, reflected, and relied heavily on multiple faith teachers to mature in my Christian faith. I began writing this Sunday blog as part of this pursuit and am eternally grateful for the blessings that have come from my late game of faith catch-up. For those of you following these Sunday writings, nothing has changed in the trajectory of the journey for our dear friend Martha, who is nearing the end of her earthly life. We thank God for answering our prayers: she is comfortable, peaceful, and pain-free. Martha is surrounded this weekend by her loved ones, and she has been showered in prayers of countless friends. We are deeply saddened, because we will miss her so. But we have had some time to prepare for this, and from my faith perspective today, I believe that Martha is experiencing a most loving transition to her eternal home. Pursuing faith for me always has been more about how to live than how to die. But there’s no denying that this pursuit has provided hope, comfort, and assurance, gratefully and particularly, in these recent weeks. Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Fathers house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. —John 14: 1-3 (NASB) Have a great week.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 12:00:32 +0000
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