The privilege of being a life coach allows me not only to ponder my own life but to have the honor of walking alongside other searchers. Not that I've got my own life all figured out by any stretch. I'm thinking that won't happen this side of heaven. But the older I get and the more experience I have on these ponderous journeys, there are definitely certain truths I see played out again and again in my life and in those around me.
I've definitely found all the truth I need to know is in the Bible - and since it has been around so long and is so revered by a large segment of the population on this earth - I often wonder why people who aren't believers don't at least look there for the possibility of answers. Regardless, the longer I live, the more confidently I join the scores of believers who see the Bible as having all the answers to the questions of life.
One of the truths that has recently gained a new focus for me is spelled out in 2 Corinthians 2:3: "Blessed be the God of all comfort...who comforts us in our sorrows...so that we can comfort others." This verse makes it clear to me that God's will is to use the places we have been comforted to comfort others. And from there I would draw my own conclusion that doing God's will is the path to joy...so that in comforting others, joy will most certainly follow!
It seems to me that secular or even new-age spirituality finds its followers because there is some inherent good to these concepts - and that often its concepts look very much like the truth in the Bible. The problem is it's only a portion of the truth (which is dangerous because subscribing to these ideologies will never supply the whole truth and following after these partial truths may keep those followers from from finding the absolute truth!} Stay with me if that sounded confusing. Here's an example: Believing that absolute truth is in the Bible and that comforting others is the reason God comforts us, look how the secular movie Eat, Pray, Love plays out the same scenario of how joy is found in helping others.
I've definitely found all the truth I need to know is in the Bible - and since it has been around so long and is so revered by a large segment of the population on this earth - I often wonder why people who aren't believers don't at least look there for the possibility of answers. Regardless, the longer I live, the more confidently I join the scores of believers who see the Bible as having all the answers to the questions of life.
One of the truths that has recently gained a new focus for me is spelled out in 2 Corinthians 2:3: "Blessed be the God of all comfort...who comforts us in our sorrows...so that we can comfort others." This verse makes it clear to me that God's will is to use the places we have been comforted to comfort others. And from there I would draw my own conclusion that doing God's will is the path to joy...so that in comforting others, joy will most certainly follow!
It seems to me that secular or even new-age spirituality finds its followers because there is some inherent good to these concepts - and that often its concepts look very much like the truth in the Bible. The problem is it's only a portion of the truth (which is dangerous because subscribing to these ideologies will never supply the whole truth and following after these partial truths may keep those followers from from finding the absolute truth!} Stay with me if that sounded confusing. Here's an example: Believing that absolute truth is in the Bible and that comforting others is the reason God comforts us, look how the secular movie Eat, Pray, Love plays out the same scenario of how joy is found in helping others.
In the beginning of the movie, Liz leaves her husband to find herself. (I'm hoping the book tells more of the reasoning behind leaving what looked like a wonderful life with a wonderful man.) From my point of view, it's another example of the search all of humanity has had since Eccleciastes - the search for the meaning of life, the feeling that more is "out there", the God-shaped hole many Christian authors refer to. Her best friend gives her advice that she's not going to find peace running off to Italy any more than she found it being totally immersed in remodeling her kitchen. (Oh really?) Still, after another relationship where she finds love but not fulfillment, she runs off to Italy indulging in the "Eat" part of the movie, seeking solace in food and new scenery. (Notice this hints of another Biblical truth sometimes explored in the secular world - that carnality might be pleasurable but doesn't fill the void within us. Also, notice the world, including this movie doesn't answer what will ultimately fill that gnawing need.)_
Her search for wholeness next takes her to India. While trying to learn to meditate, Liz meets a man whose own realization that he squandered the most important points of his life, helps her along her search. She brings these insights, including knowing she has to forgive herself for past failures to her last stop, Bali, where we see her finally find some joy in serving others. She emails her daughter and friends for donations for a poor healer she has built a relationship with. She raises enough donations for this woman to build her own house... a clear example of the joy felt in fulfilling God's will of comforting others - even if Liz didn't recognize it as God's will!
The end of the movie would lead us to believe Liz has faced her fears as she finds love yet again to add to this joy. However, I would love to fast forward into the sequel because those of us that have found truth in the Bible know this movie evidences a woman finding only partial truth. Yes, helping others and loving others, and forgiving yourself are truths that play out positively in secular life - but those of us that know the rest of the truth, "Apart from God we can do nothing", know that if Liz does not learn to rely on God, her truths, however hard they may have been learned, may not last. And, that God doesn't promise happily-ever-after endings on earth, only in heaven.
More musings on Eat, Pray, Love...
The latest crave of the world is Eat, Pray, Love -
a movie and book about which there's much talk of.
It's all about a woman in search of herself.
Personally, I can't see this book's life
surviving long off the shelf.)
It's the same old story of mankind's search for
something more.
We watch her learn some things, though I suspect
they don't reach to her core.
She does learn the world's fare does not satisfy.
Helping others is one thing she finds that makes
her heart fly.
She learns to forgive herself and love once again.
But I wonder if it will last and what will happen when...
she once again finds that even that won't fill her soul.
And that all she's learned will not make her whole.
For the Bible is the book that is the beginning and the end.
I'd love to tell her, "Go there, my friend!"
For that's where you'll find sustaining food to eat,
the Bread of Life is who you'll meet.
And you'll learn it matters to whom you pray.
It's there we're taught there is only one way.
Yes, that's where you'll find lasting love -
the heavenly kind that earth knows little of.
So, go ahead, read what the world has to say,
but then run it by the Book that is here to stay.
If you don't know the Bible - give it a try.
There's a reason multitudes cling to it til the day they die.
For in it they find the true way to eat, pray and love,
that will carry them past this life to the one above.-Sherrill Schlimpert, August 2010
