bythemethod.com blog

What is life about? Is there some purpose to life or am I just drifting through the universe with no real part to play other than what pleases me? I believe that there is purpose in the universe and that we have a part to play in that purpose, if we want it.

To understand this I think we must look at the spiritual side of life. Those of you who read this blog regularly may feel this goes against the down to earth, practical approach that I promote. Well – I think spirituality is part of life and needs careful thought. Often faith is a very practical thing – bear with me because I think when you are trying to work out a purpose this stuff is very important.

It seems to be the done thing, at the moment, to invent your own version of the spirituality of the universe. We are encouraged to focus our attention on ourselves and how we feel most comfortable thinking about the spiritual. We must aim for those things that make us feel the best about the way things are in our life and then surround ourselves with a personal spirituality. There is a part of me that really likes this idea but I see one major flaw in it. If there is a God then God must actually be like something. What if God had actually chosen to reveal himself to people – not in little bits and pieces that we can pick up on and discover like a kind of mirror broken into millions of pieces but as he actually is.

The major faiths all believe that this is exactly what he has done. What I fear is that most people decide about spirituality based on what they know of their followers. Although I can understand this in my search for truth I find this too restricting. I also find that the bad followers of a religion tend to get far more attention than the good followers.

Without going in to the details I can say that for me the teachings of Jesus Christ seem to be what makes the most sense. Like everyone I am sometimes alarmed by the lack of Christian love in some churches but I also see through history the way that great Christian love has changed things for the better. Where it is followed fully the Christian faith makes a very positive difference to peoples lives.

Jesus Christ was very keen on talking about “the kingdom”. Essentially a place where God got his way. Jesus described this place as being wonderful and he was also keen to point out that we can be part of that kingdom now.

I don’t know if you think Jesus was God’s son or just bonkers but I personally think he understood the purpose of life and the universe better than anyone else ever has.

If you want to understand your purpose then you need to begin with an appreciation of the greater purpose of which we are a part. This greater purpose is, I believe, what Jesus described as the “kingdom of God”.

In God’s kingdom we have a part to play – a part that God has planned in. I also believe that the role we play is up to us. We don’t have to do what God want’s us too but life is going to be an awful lot better if we do.

If you want to understand your purpose you need to ask God to help you find it.

We’ve just been celebrating the 40th anniversary of a person landing on the moon. I’ve enjoyed watching the programmes and I’m just old enough to remember when it actually happened. There is still something very exciting about seeing it happen and it’s a real testiment to the ability of people to achieve great things when they are motivated enough.

One of the programmes I watched was about the people who walked on the moon. Two things strike me in particular about their experience.

The first is that they are just very ordinary people who still seem a little amazed that they were the ones who got to go to the moon. There was a clip of Neil Armstrong’s parents on a T.V. programme when he had just been picked for the space programme and they were just very ordinary people – like anyone’s mum or dad. You don’t have to be superman to achieve great things.

The next thing came at the end of the programme. The astronauts were speaking about how the moon landings had affected them. Every one of them that were interviewed said something about the spiritual impact of looking back at the earth from such a distance and seeing this small blue disk hanging in a great expanse of black. This had a profound effect on them which even today 40 years after can bring tears to the eyes of an astronaut. It took that distance to make them think bigger than they normally did. At a moment when technology had given them the chance to walk on another world, and at a moment when they were surrounded by technology to keep them alive, and at a moment when we might suppose they would think about the brilliance of mankind, they thought of God.

So I want to encourage you to think bigger. Try to see beyond the obious stuff of life and see the bigger picture. Why not get a picture of the earth from a distance and spend time thinking about the bigger picture of life.

There is a tendency at the moment to see the “self” as something bad, after all self is part of the word selfishness and we know what kind of bad things stem from being selfish. Various forms of religions/world views offer us an understanding of what the self is and its importance.

There are three broad strands of thinking in spiritual terms when it comes to thinking about the self.

The first of these is the idea that god is impersonal and so the self does not exist or is essentially something to escape from. We see this idea in many of the ancient faiths of the east and in much of the so called New Age movement. Buddha, for instance, saw his greatest moment of spiritual achievement as being released from the self. As Buddha himself once put it: ““Life is suffering.” This turns the self into something to escape from and so in spiritual terms we need to be released from the self if we are to achieve wholeness. Happiness and enjoyment and success are alien to this way of thinking because they are things that concern the self.

The next is the atheistic approach. We see this in many of the philosophies of the early to mid part of the 20th century. Here the self is whatever we choose it to be. We can decide for ourselves what we want to be or where we find wholeness. In much atheistic literature we read that there are no limits for the self at all. However if we try to find a purpose or meaning in life then we discover ultimately that there is none. This approach truly does lead to selfishness and it can do no other. Ideals of getting benefits from helping others will in the end come down to the benefit to yourself in doing this.

The third approach comes from the Judeo-Christian-Islamic faiths where God is viewed in a personal, even intimate, way. Here the self is a created being who finds purpose and meaning within the purposes of God. God who is working to make right a world gone wrong gives meaning and purpose to those who will help him. Yes the self can become selfish but that is not a part of the approach to spirituality that we talk about but is part of the broken world God is trying to mend. Here we find our purpose and reason for being in following God. Within this view of spirituality the self is important but the self is also part of the whole that works towards the building of a kingdom of God.

It is, of course, up to you where you want to seek your spirituality but it’s the latter of the three approaches that makes the most sense to me.

Perhaps the biggest question any of us has to face is the about the existence of the soul. Is there something about us that lives on after death? Is there something in us that is not just physical but which can reach out to something beyond the physical.

Some scientists want us to believe that the only thing that is real is the physical world. If you can’t poke it with a stick then it doesn’t exist. Of course they go further than wanting to poke things with a stick but this is the essence of the argument. Then others seem to think that the physical is just an illusion. Who is right?

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We are constantly being encouraged to think in a more spiritual way but then we also like to make money. Is it possible to do both at the same time or is one opposed to the other? I think the answer might be surprising.

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Few of us will be surprised to learn that our environment can have an effect on your soul. If you have ever taken the time to look at a mountain or been in a Cathedral or perhaps walked in a beautiful garden you will know the way they can speak to your soul. Yet where do you find such places in ordinary life?

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There is noise everywhere. Those who live in Cities rarely avoid it altogether and even in the countryside it can be hard to escape from some noise or another. So how do we find ways to be silent and does it really matter that we can’t?

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Escaping from the busy-ness of life would be great, wouldn’t it? Don’t we all want a chance to get away from it all and find that little oasis where all of our troubles are gone and we can be perfectly happy? Yet when we try so often we fail. We have holidays that take us five days to settle in to and then we have to start thinking about getting back. Or we anticipate a future where maybe this might just be possible – perhaps when we retire we can enjoy this temple of peace.

If you are looking for this temple then read on …

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Holidays are a chance to get away from it all at last. After working around the clock for the whole year we now anticipate a few hours of rest. For some of us it will have been a long hard struggle to keep going until the time for the holiday has arrived.

Then again we did manage to get some short breaks in and we have developed a hobby and every now and then we have a massage to make us feel better.

But are we really getting away from it all? Is there any way we can get away from it all?

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How busy are you? Most of us complain about how busy we are. No time to do anything – not even enough to do what we have to. There are jobs to do at work and at home. And have you ever tried bringing up four children and then have time for anything? How can I be less busy and how can I find time for anything spiritual anyway?

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