Obstacles in the Search for God

I try to be positive in these blogs. No one wants to read downers, especially in a blog whose aim is to help people who may have given up on God and religion. Faith, if nothing else, is a relationship with God and each other that brings peace and joy.

However, anyone who has goals – such as finding God – should acknowledge the obstacles. And as in times past, there are plenty of them.

One difference from “back in the day” is that social structures and the popular culture generally supported faith and religion. Today, evangelicals and other faith forms may capture a certain amount of public attention – in the area of politics, for instance – but contemporary Western culture does not support faith, especially for the young.

The obstacles about which I’m writing are borrowed from Pope Francis’ “The Joy of Love,” a papal message about marriage and family released in March. The document followed meetings of Catholic bishops in 2014 and 2015 on the same subjects.

Living One’s Faith

I’ve written about this exceptional document before and will do so again. I focus on these obstacles because they apply not only to marriage and family but generally to the attempt to live one’s faith in today’s world.

(I don’t subscribe to the idea that modern life is “going to hell in a hand basket,” by the way. In many ways, conditions and people are better than ever!)

Near the top of any such list is our society’s extreme individualism, making it hard to consider the “common good” over our own interests, needs and desires. Individualism leads to the question, “What’s in it for me or my group?” It makes compromise difficult – something that is more and more evident in the political arena – and increases stress, intolerance and hostility.

Religions, particularly the Christian faith, are communal. They promote a sense of belonging, of a common purpose. Spirituality without religion may have an appeal but is hard to actually pull off. Just as most people need the motivation and sense of belonging in physical exercise, they also need it in our communal relationship with God.

“Where two or three are gathered in my name,” says Jesus in the Mathew’s gospel, “there I am in their midst.”

A related obstacle is a perverted idea of freedom of choice.

“Freedom of choice makes it possible to plan our lives and to make the most of ourselves,” says Francis’ document. “Yet if this freedom lacks noble goals or personal discipline, it degenerates into an inability to give oneself generously to others.”

Obviously, people of faith and people searching for God can’t define freedom as “doing what I want.”

Modern life is also, in my opinion, marked by a failure to find “personal fulfillment,” a generally useful term to describe our need to make our lives meaningful. This failure often results in disillusionment among people who don’t meet their own and others’ expectations, making it harder to relate to God and others.

A recent report on National Public Radio said a large percentage of college graduates, for instance, feel no “passion” about any career or personal goal. The young people interviewed on the subject felt sad and stressed because they believed something important was missing from their lives.

It brings to mind the famous saying attributed to St. Augustine, that great latecomer to religion and searcher for God: “You have made us for yourself,” Lord, “and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Question Everything?

Last on my list of contemporary obstacles to faith is widespread uncertainty and ambiguity. I like the slogan, sometimes seen on auto bumpers, “Question Everything.” For me, it means that humans must be curious, look for evidence and use our God-given intelligence and logic to better understand the world. But it doesn’t mean that truth and knowledge are found in cynicism or solely in scientific pursuit.
This uncertainty and ambiguity is expressed even in the way we speak. We hedge our bets on many of our statements, peppering them with “sort of” and “like.”

And many people today refuse to accept that anything is stable or even that truth exists. It’s “your truth” and “my truth,” as if truth could be thus divided. To me, “seeking truth” is the equivalent of “seeking God.” If you don’t believe in truth, how can you believe in its author?

The good news in all this is that obstacles can be overcome. And, I believe, God is always there for those who seek him.