There seems to be a very significant shift in this country regarding organized religion and I'm not certain why but I do know this is not a healthy shift. I thought I would espouse my take on this phenomena.
We now live in a world of instant gratification. That is really not disputable. Everyone is instantly connected globally to anything and everything that happens. While this is certainly not bad in and of itself it has most definitely changed the way we view life and even many people's perceptions of how to live life. Most people I know who I would consider to be faithful have a certain amount of patience in knowing that eventually God's plan will be revealed to us. There's a couple words that go against the grain of modern society: patience and eventually. Many people can not and will not accept being patient and many of those same people can't fathom how to compute ( a little modern lingo there) eventually.
Webster's defines patience as calm endurance. There are two words that also go against the current flow of our world. As a Christian I understand what this means and I think most faithful people of what ever denomination also have a grasp of that concept. You can not have faith in something you can not touch or taste or hear without having calm endurance. I think it would do many people a great deal of good to stop at least one day a week and talk a deep breath. Many faithful people use their day of worship to take a deep breath spiritually and try to make sense of things but as I stated previously those people are dwindling.
Eventually in Webster's terms means ultimately and since many people these days can't think past the here and now, ultimately is another difficult aspect to process. To put it more simply people have become very poor about planning for the future not only in material aspects of their lives but spiritually as well.
How does this shift get altered? This is cyclical, I believe, and although this issue has been grappled with, by many generations of the past, it has never been quite so prominent as it is now in our technological age. I wish I could be more optimistic about this but I fear a real and significant tragedy will need to take place to bring people back to their God. We saw a mere glimpse of it when the World Trade Centers came down. The other way it can be altered is to start with our youth. They are the future of this world. The challenge with this is our Liberal educational institutions are continually working to remove religion from schools. This just perpetuates the whole disintegration of a child's perception of how important or unimportant religion is. Truly I don't have any one answer to change this shift. The only way I can see to make a difference is one soul at a time.
Are you one of the many people in this world that doesn't really see a need for organized religion? If you are I want to entertain this thought to you. Why exactly are you on this planet? If you have a hard time answering that then a good organized church is a start to help you explore the meaning of your existence. In most churches you can do this all on your own terms. I invite you to give it a chance. If you have children you owe it to them and to their future happiness and, in fact, you could learn a great deal from your children.
Nice work .. may not get all-around support though :-). It will rattle some, offend some but others will embrace it. Just your cup of tea .. a little controversy.
ReplyDeleteLove you!
I expect if most anyone does comment it will be of a defensive nature and that's ok. I only want to make people think. Not trying to offend anyone. Never is or will be the purpose of this.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pete for inviting me to your blog. I always enjoy talking to you and this gives a better impression of your thoughts. As John Wesley pointed out, a movement without structure is chaos. There are not too many movements that don't eventually offer some organization. However, it would be a major mistake to maintain the organization and lose the movement. Thanks, Paul
ReplyDeletePeter, I missed the email of this one and just now had the chance to read it. Well spoken articulation of your point of view. The true believer will rarely tolerate and certainly never admit to the possibility that other views might have validity. You, at least, have an ecumenical enough mind to realize that a belief system adopted with thoughtfulness, prayerful consideration and a firm conscience has at least a small degree of validity. Nice writing.
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