How Life Works
The great debate.
There is a fundamental disagreement between worshippers of God and everyone else over how life works.
The popular self-actualized idea is that we must all be original, different, or stand out from the crowd in order to be significant (aka important). And if something pops into someone’s head and they go with it, and it works out, it is usually attributed to Luck, Karma, or “The Man Upstairs.” What is lacking, of course, is a personal relationship with God. He is instead a force or a good feeling.
As far as I can tell, all of this secular-versus-religious worldview controversy is a modern construct. It is an “enlightened” response to the notion that strong religious beliefs cause wars - which they often do - but always assigns religion to the bad column.
What is missing from this position is the problem that man is always religious whether he wants to admit it. We always have something at our core, even if it is to believe there is nothing there at all. Besides, men are the ones who like to start wars, even if it takes a religious-sounding pretext to do so.
Our most personal basic belief about who we are and what life is about play out in our thinking as well as actions, even unconsciously. These fundamental beliefs, often not well thought through or considered are what get us into trouble or protect us from it.
Eventually we all act out from our deepest convictions, even when we tell others (and sometimes ourselves) this isn’t what we believe.
When you boil it all down, the fundamental difference between secular and religious people is simple. One believes God does not exist or is irrelevant and the other believes that her or his actions, even in private, will still one day have to be acknowledged. One manages life alone and the other is in a creative relationship with, as my recovery friends would say, his or her Higher Power.
The idea that believers are never creative alone can also be understood by the idea that God lifts weights. The burden of perfectionism is lifted from us. No longer must we impress others because God by our side is bigger than those who stand against us. And as far as creativity, when the soul and spirit are light, no longer under pressure to perform, creativity along the individual’s unique gifting simply bubbles forth. No stress. Much joy.
