HIS MESSAGE TO THE WORLD
Sometimes the World around us does not seem to make any sense. There are high rates of insecurity, and unstable national currencies. Stock markets plunge. Disarmament negotiations end with disappointing results. Terrorists set off bombs and hijack planes. Newspapers and the media regularly carry accounts of political killings, social crimes, Violence, melancholic plane crash, missing persons, and untimely deaths.
Cars crash and kill over a million people a year in the world, leaving many thousands broken and crippled for months or for years. Strange bomb blasts have become almost regular phenomena in our cities. Ethnic and religious upheavals damn us all to misery and loss. Sickness is in the air we breathe, in the food we eat, even in our blood stream. Demons prowl the earth to strike people as they please.
Yesterday one of our neighbor’s children was drown in a swimming pool. Today another neighbor is robbed and beaten in his home.
Tomorrow someone may have a heart attack or stroke, or be given surgery for cancer and never walk again. On a personal level, people face problems with drugs, alcohol, stress, and disturbed relationships.
It is no wonder that many of us often have a feeling of anxiety and confusion as we look at what is happening – not just in society, but even at times in our own lives.
Sometimes we find ourselves wondering who or what will strike the next blow. Will we be victims of some terminal illness? Of terrorism? Of crime? Of a nuclear holocaust? Will we be robbed of our loved ones by some terrible illness or fatal accident? Is there any reason to believe that we will ever reach our goals and experience fulfillment?
There are aggressive, new forces at work. At the same time, the influence of the traditional religion has disappeared almost completely. In the midst of all this, people continue to look for some kind of spiritual dimension or meaning in their lives, even those who don’t consider themselves to be religious. What is this search all about? Exactly what do we want? What is missing?
It is not very easy to describe, is it? Yet a voice deep inside us keeps insisting that there has to be more to this business of living than what is on the surface. Perhaps one way to get at it is to say that what we want is the opposite of what we feel. Instead of boredom and frustration, we want excitement and fulfillment. Instead of depression and fear, we want satisfaction, confidence, peace, wholeness, purpose, and hope. We want our lives to have spiritual meaning and value. We want to know that we are not just insignificant specks on an unimportant planet in a heartless universe as this present one.
There is no easy solution, though. When we set out to find what is missing, we come up against a serious obstacle: nothing around us seems to be the answer. Our real need cannot be met by more money, more possessions, or more experiences. As long as we think it can, we are doom to failure. We can stay busy for years at a time trying one thing or another, perhaps even for our whole lives. But our effort will bring no lasting results. The happiness we are looking for will fade away each time like a mirage in the desert. It simply won’t be there.