Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
In the
main, we like putting things in boxes. We like things in our lives to be neatly
tied together with a bow. Most of us struggle with ambiguity and open-endedness.
A friend of mine made that clear with the following quip.
There are two kinds
of people in the world. Those who need closure.
When
things are left hanging, something inside of us screams for closure. What
happened? What’s the answer? What happened next? We like things neat and tidy.
It is
natural for us to satisfy our need for closure by putting things in neat boxes.
We often do this by putting labels on things. He’s a Republican. She’s a
Democrat. He’s narrow minded. She’s bigoted. Putting labels on things categorizes
them for us. It puts things in little boxes that we can handle.
I have
been reading G.K. Chesterton’s book “Orthodoxy”. In it, he makes that point
that the trend of materialism today is to put everything into neat little
boxes. By denying the supernatural, we confine life to the narrow box of determinism.
Determinism eliminates mystery by having to explain everything in naturalistic
terms. There is a logical explanation for everything that we see and
experience. Our emotions are the product of the neurological impulses in our
brain caused by specific chemical reactions. Life itself is the product of the
evolutionary process. There is nothing at work outside of the natural world in
which we live.
The
materialistic view of the world places everything into neat, explainable boxes.
There is a certain sense of comfort and security in this. If we can explain
something, then, in a sense, we can understand it and control it. In a sense,
it becomes “safe.” The problem with the materialistic approach is that it
places us in a very small box of our own making. It eliminates mystery and the
transcendent.
Yet,
there is something within us that cries out for the transcendent. When
materialism is taken to its logical conclusion, it become a straightjacket. We
find ourselves confined in a very small box of our own making. Instead of our
world expanding, it collapses in on itself. Suddenly, we find it hard to
breathe within that box. We clamor for the air of mystery and wonder; of the
unexplainable and the transcendent. So, we create fantasy worlds and dabble in
a spirituality of our own making. If there is no God, then we will create our own
god to fill the void, whether that be art, music, science, politics, or even
ourselves.
As
Chesterton points out, materialism eliminates free will. Everything is
determined by a set of parameters that are outside of our control. But faith in
God actually frees us from the boundaries of this confining box. It opens the
door to mystery and wonder. It acknowledges that there are things we cannot
know, understand, or control. It also allows us to really think outside of the
box. Today, thinking outside of the box only results in another box. But
spiritual thinking outside of the box actually opens up an expanding universe
without boundaries. Materialism seeks to narrow and confine our world. Faith in
God seeks to expand and explode our world.
The
common thinking of our world today is that we exist because of random,
causeless events. Because of this, our lives have no ultimate meaning or
purpose. We may be able to create some temporary sense of meaning and purpose,
but in the end, even those will evaporate with time. The Bible gives us a very
different picture. It tells us that we were intentionally created in the image
of God with meaning and purpose. The meaning and purpose of our lives
transcends the time we have on this earth. As Jesus has said, we have the
chance to store up treasures for all of eternity. How we live our lives
matters, not just to us, but to God. Therefore, everything we do becomes a
conscious choice to either invest in eternity or squander our resources on
temporary pleasures.
Years ago,
there was a movie called “The Truman Show.” It was the story of a man who, from
birth, was raised in an artificial world. He lived in a totally predetermined
world where everything was unchanging, until one day he rebelled and found the
door to the outside world. Materialism wants to trap us in “The Truman Show.”
Faith in God shows us the door to a much wider and more meaningful world.
There is
a significant difference between facts and truth. Facts tell us what is, but
they cannot explain why things are. They create the walls of the boxes that we
live within. But truth transcends the facts; it goes beyond the sterile walls
of a deterministic world. Truth sets us free to engage with mysteries that will
lead us deeper and deeper into God’s unconfined reality.
Many
secular people claim that religion takes away our freedom and confines us. In
reality, true faith in God does the exact opposite. When we place our faith in
Jesus Christ, he explodes the walls of our little, self-made boxes and invites
us into the expanse of his amazing reality.
John 8:31-32 (NIV)
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my
teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the
truth will set you free."
John 14:6 (NIV)
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes
to the Father except through me.
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