Deep Spiritual Roots Help Us Weather the Storm

This is absolutely critical, because eternity is a long time. It also helps right now, because you need all the assistance you can get.

Keep in mind - God helps people, but don’t think spiritual development is simply a tool to fix the headaches of this life. That sells it infinitely short. Life has its troubles, and things do go badly. Getting right with your maker doesn’t give you a Get Out of Jail Free card on that. Yes, you will see real benefit in the here and now, but the foundational issue is eternity.

We were all made for eternity, and deep down, we can feel it. We have thirsts that this life just can not satisfy. Death and tragedy feel wrong - like life shouldn’t go that way. At some level we intuitively understand that we’re in a square peg/round hole mis-fit.

Why Is There So Much Brokenness and Suffering, and What is the Ultimate Cure?

To understand something, we need to look at where it came from, what purpose it was created for, and then we look at how it got to where it is today.

The following is a narrative distillation from the biblical text.

Humanity and the world in which we exist were created by a God who took personal interest in crafting each piece of the universe, then making human beings in His image, and placing them in the middle of that universe. Our designed purpose is to know and enjoy relationship with Him, while caring for each other.

But if that’s the case, how did we get to where we are now?

To have real relationship, based on love, the people in that relationship need to have free will - the ability to choose to love and properly relate to the other. A humanity that automatically loves its creator without choosing to would not be a reflection of the God who created us, or a real participant in that relationship.

This free will is both the most beautiful, and most frightening thing God put into His creation. It means that we have the ability to truly relate to Him, because we have choice, but it also means that we then have the ability to choose poorly... disastrously… tragically. This is how humanity and the rest of creation got to where we are today. Given the potent ability to choose, the first man, set in charge of creation, chose poorly. He chose to violate the sacred trust he had with his creator. When presented with a false accusation that God was lying to him and keeping things from him, he believed this falsehood and chose to break faith with God - disobeying His command to not eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.

Having chosen his own way, and broken his connection with his creator, the first man broke the creation as well. This caused fundamental damage that is shot through the entire thing. He and all his descendants then found themselves hopelessly trapped in a situation which lacked a solution. Can you put life back into the dead? Can you reclaim water that has been spilled on the earth, and put it back in the glass? There was no undoing it. From that point forward, everything was poisoned, and even humanity’s noblest efforts always contained the flaw.

This brokenness is called sin. Each of us is born into this state of sin. By nature, we then choose to behave in line with this sinfulness.

For many generations after this, mankind went its own way, attempting to make the best of a shattered situation. But as knowledge of the truth faded into the past, the pain and rebellion of humanity’s brokenness piled up. People turned increasingly to lies and greater rebellion.

Being good, the God who created it all did not give up on us. He continued to reach out, and maintain a link - relating to people who would relate to him. But over the generations, the people continued to turn away, and to seek satisfaction in the brokenness.

When the time was ripe, and humanity had fully demonstrated its inability to turn to its creator, He took on the fundamental problem - the deep root of rebellion that caused the brokenness. Only God had the ability to call back what had died, and reclaim what was spilled.

The way He did this was to step into the creation Himself, and take on the form of humanity. He remained perfect, but lived a human life from the point of conception (brought about by no man, but by the Spirit of God Himself). He walked the path of human existence, only without any brokenness or rebellion in Him. This perfect God-man then taught us the path of life, so we would know more clearly which way to choose. Most importantly though, He took on the divine punishment for all of our collective rebellion and evil in order to deal with the destruction at the root.

In this human form, He laid His life down, allowing Himself to take our place as a substitute. He subjected Himself to the undeserved cruelty and death that His own people called down upon Him. Perfect and innocent, He willingly died in order to absorb death and punishment itself. Then, on the third day after this death, He was bodily resurrected from the grave, and walked again among the people - this time in a glorified body, and filled with eternal life. Finally, He ascended back to heaven where He came from, and took His seat on the throne of all authority and power.

This unique-in-all-creation God-man is Jesus of Nazareth. Crucified by the Roman governor of Judaea, Pontius Pilate.

Having done the restoration work, He offers us the opportunity to reverse the decision the first man made. We can now choose to believe, and place our trust in Him. Our inherited sinfulness doomed us to eternal judgment. Substituting Himself into our punishment opens the door back to eternal life for us.

If we are born again into eternal life, we are given a taste of eternity now, even as we live in the still-broken world. In a day to come, He will bring the last day of history upon us, and we will enter the fullness of eternal life. at the final judgment because we have trusted in what He did for us, and accepted it, and Him, as our salvation.

This relationship He invites us back into is a covenant. It is the most serious of agreements, and is sealed in the blood of His blameless death on our behalf, confirmed in His resurrection back to life.

We enter this relationship soberly, recognizing what it really means, and the depth of what was done for us. Humbly, we repent - cast off and turn away from our rebellion and sinful behaviors. We then receive the gracious provision of life He has given us.

This is best done through a prayer of repentance, and confession of belief to God, marking our formal entering into covenant with Him.

Maybe you’re not quite ready to take this leap yet (“nice to meet you - want to get married?”). If you are not ready, consider opening the door by praying a simple prayer: “To the one who made me - if you are there, I ask you to make yourself known to me.” Of course, the Almighty is not your servant boy, so this is a humble request, not a demand.

Now stay tuned in on all wavelengths to see what happens.

If you are ready to take the leap, the specific words are not what hold the power. It’s what they express that brings you into relationship. Pray along with the following to establish your commitment to Him, as an acceptance of His commitment to you.

“God in heaven, I recognize my sinful state, and that I am separated from you, in the place of rebellion with the rest of mankind. I thank you that you have provided a way for me to have eternal life through your death in my place at the crucifixion. I turn away from my sin. I take you at your word, believing that the pouring out of your innocent life and blood are the perfect payment needed to save me from eternal judgment. I receive your forgiveness and mercy.

Please enter into me, and take control of my life, enabling me to live in a way that pleases and honors you. I receive you as my savior, and as my lord.”

Once we have believed, and placed our trust in Him, we are reborn spiritually, and restored into His family. He calls Himself our Father.

We also know that He is faithful to us. The biblical book of Hebrews (Hebrews 13:5) tells us “For God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never forsake you.’”

We are then told in scripture to be baptized.

We must then tell someone of our faith, and come into community with other believers.

In order to care for this new life inside of you, you must continue to water it. Spend time regularly reading scripture, praying, worshiping, and learning to better know God and what He wants from us.

A handy resource is this online Bible, where you can learn more about what God has to say.