Motivating Matters

    Another point of emphasis for myself this year has been to further explore the world of theology and spirituality. If those are not topics of interest for you, then this blog post might not be your cup of tea. For anyone seeking meaning in their life or encountering some challenges and wondering how to overcome them, this is for you. My brothers and I decided to challenge ourselves to read the bible in its entirety this year, and I wanted to pair that with some other books that would give me some context and perspective about the bible and Christianity. While browsing the internet for Christian books, I came across “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. He is the author of the world renowned series of books called “The Chronicles of Narnia,” and converted to Christianity after previously believing there was no God. I was intrigued to read the book and decided to check it out from the library.

    Just to give a little background of my faith journey, I grew up in the Catholic Church and went to a Catholic elementary school, which gave me a good foundation of knowledge about religion and God. I have a lot to thank my parents for in regards to my upbringing and their instillment of proper morals. Throughout my years in elementary and high school, I was always involved in church one way or another: server, lector, youth group leader, retreat attendee, etc. Yet, it always felt like there was a barrier between myself and God. In retrospect, I can attribute the barrier to my own decisions, thus making me responsible. Prayer never felt natural. My mind always seemed to drift during mass. Any time my faith was challenged I didn’t know how to defend it. Ultimately, I was just going through the motions, not even sure if I really believed in God.

Because of my lack of wholehearted intention, and an urge to please others, the barrier started to grow. This essentially led me into masking what I was really feeling in inside. I began to bottle up my thoughts and emotions. I was physically present at mass and church gatherings, but was not concerned with applying anything that was being taught in my own life. (I needed to experience life and have a change of heart.) Even when I was there, my mind was more concerned with worldly desires and popular trends. The worst part about it was that, because on the outside everyone thought I was okay, I was never willing to open up about how I was feeling, nor was I ready. (Everything is on God’s time.) Much of it can be attributed to my concern with my own self image and not wanting to let others down. This self-inflicted, deeply-rooted issue has been something I have struggled with for years. I finally came to realize that the only way to free myself of this burden was to improve my relationship with God. I needed to be born again.

I grew up saying I was Catholic and have never read the complete bible. For you football fans, that’s like saying you play for the Minnesota Vikings, but really you’re the ball boy… What do you think is going to happen if you ever were put into a game? You don’t know the playbook or the game plan. You think you’ll be able to compete? Maybe this one makes more sense… It’s like saying you’re a pilot yet have no previous training or experience flying a plane. What’s going to happen when you are put in the cockpit of a plane and expected to fly it? Now don’t get me wrong, like any endeavor in our lives, we start with little to no knowledge and experience, so these analogies are not meant to discourage you. Instead, they were meant to challenge you. Faith aside, if you aren’t striving to become better in any facet of your life, you are living without meaning. Many of us become so comfortable with how things are that when are put in a challenging situation we are destined to fail. I said I was a Catholic, supposedly believed in God, and felt like I was a “good” person, but had no desire to put any work in to grow in my faith. Life throughout my childhood and early adult years was comfortable and I had few worries. I was content with a rather naïve view of the world. The challenges I did face, I usually ran away from. As a result, I felt like I didn’t need God because things were “fine.”

Similar situations are common in many people’s lives on so many levels. An example would be, while life is going great, and we’re having fun, we often don’t see a reason to entertain a deeper relationship with God. Then, when things take a turn for the worst, we make some mistakes, or encounter a challenge, we tend to blame God or someone else for our failures and end up feeling hopeless. In these vulnerable situations is when many of us seek an experience with God and when there is no answer, we feel like our cries for help are not being heard. This hopelessness leads us to take the matter into our own hands, and we turn to our worldly desires for money, drugs, sex, or whatever it may be, to solve our problems. These things might give us a feeling of peace, but the effects are temporary and there is often a sense of regret and emptiness afterwards. This emptiness is a direct result of our innate sense of right and wrong that C.S. refers to in “Mere Christianity” as “The Law of Human Nature.” Since we can all acknowledge that we’re not perfect, accepting that there is a universal moral standard creates the possibility of something more powerful than ourselves that fulfills this Law of Human Nature. I’m referring to God and His reason for creating us. What if I told you that God left us a tool to better understand Him and the meaning of our lives?

The bible encapsulates the very essence of what truth is. It is the word of God revealed to us through the life of Jesus Christ, and many people who had firsthand accounts of Him. As C.S. Lewis says, “Doctrines are not God: they are only a kind of map. But that map is based on the experience of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God – experiences compared with which any thrills or pious feelings you and I are likely to get on our own are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further, you must use the map.” We cannot rely on our own experiences of God to further our faith. These experiences are thrilling and exciting when they occur, but often do not lead us to change our course aka repent. Rather we must use the “map” provided for us, especially in the case where we are lost and feel that life is without meaning. God never promised us a life without suffering and failure, but He does promise to be there with us, and to guide us through it.

Putting your faith and trust in God happens differently for each of us. For myself, I had to experience life and make mistakes to realize I needed Him. After reflection, I would have much rather put my faith in Him from the start to prevent myself from making the mistakes I did, but I thought I needed to figure it out myself. This “need to figure it out myself” is directly correlated with a what C.S. Lewis calls “the great sin.” It is the cause for all other vices we struggle with, and can be traced back to the reason for Lucifer becoming the devil. “The great sin” C.S. Lewis is referring to is pride or self-conceit. “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others… It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest (Lewis).” I found myself stuck in a never-ending competition for more that many of us spend our entire lives entertaining. I was chasing money, accolades, knowledge, and material items because I thought they would make me happy. In reality, I wanted all those things to prove to others my validity. It was my pride that urged me to seek more when God had already blessed me with everything I needed. It was my pride that made me think I didn’t need a relationship with God because I was afraid of what others would think if I came off “too religious.” A core component of Christianity is the realization that one must put their pride and ego aside, and transcend themselves in order to become free. By no means is that an easy task, especially without a savior to put your trust in. Jesus is that savior and it starts with a simple decision.

I’m happy to say that I have been born again and my faith is being renewed each day through continually learning and reading the bible. No matter what challenges occur in my life, I know that I will persevere and come out of them stronger because “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13 KJV). The idea that if we put our trust in God, challenges become less difficult, touches on the purpose for God creating us. We are created in the image and likeness of God, which clearly differs from Jesus who was begotten by God. The difference is that we are like art created by God. We share in some of His qualities, but we are not Him, nor can we become Him through seeking enlightenment and knowledge. C.S. Lewis explains that “Man not only lives, but loves and reasons: biological life reaches its highest known level in him. But what man, in his natural condition, has not got, is Spiritual life – the higher and different sort of life that exists in God.” Biological life is both fragile and finite. All of us are going to physically die one day, which can be a hard pill to swallow when we derive our meaning from what we do and possess here on earth. Although our physical body passes away, our soul lives forever. This is the “different sort of life that exists in God” that C.S. Lewis is referring to. Do you want your soul to be forever at peace in heaven or forever tormented in hell?

Our purpose here on earth is to decide the eternal fate of our souls. We were created to glorify our creator. Jesus commands us to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 23:37 KJV). That means every decision we make in life should have God in the forefront. Without God, we can be easily led astray by popular trends, celebrities, and false hopes. If we allow God to have His way, C.S. Lewis states that we “come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God.” We are all created by God, but we do not become sons of God (heirs to His kingdom) until we put our faith in Him. I encourage you to figure out what you’re living for. What gives your life meaning? Is it more powerful than the creator of the universe? If you’re unsure of what you’re living for, then I encourage you to think about it and seek truth. Ask questions and be skeptical. My intention for writing this article was not necessarily to convert anyone to Christianity, but rather to challenge readers to seek truth in everything they do.

If you’re interested in reading “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis click here.

I appreciate you reading this post and hope this showed you why Motivating Matters. Feel free to comment any thoughts or feedback about the article!

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