I recently joined a writing group of strangers after being “encouraged” to do so by my dearest friend; no, she’s not an atheist. Just the opposite, she believes deeply in the eternal love of God. A love so deep and so wide that nothing can separate us from soaking in this ceaseless sea of life, not even death. God is love.
My new writing group is made up of individuals who all have different views on how they understand the world. Some have varied beliefs about the nature of God. Some are agnostic about God, and some are atheists who deny the existence of God. Confidently believing that there is no heavenly power, only earthly temporality.
People who believe only in what their senses can perceive. People whose faith is grounded in materialism; built solely upon what this world has to offer. People like past Don who denied the transcendent nature of reality while rolling his eyes.
I know the allure of atheism, because that was my faith for most of my adult life. A faith that neither bettered me nor the world, because it was based on my limitations and my likings. A false faith that diminished my humanity, because I denied my heavenly nature. I was only a device of the dirt, not a spiritual subject created in the image of God; and so was everyone else in my world.
My dear friend, reaching our after our first lively conversation as a group. Specifically, asking how I would connect with an audience of eye rollers, past Don’s. What words can I write to support all my brothers and sisters to know God’s invitation of love open to all people.
Her wish for my written words in synchronicity with my own life as I re-read the verses of Ecclesiastes. One of the great wisdom books of the Bible. Its author reminding the reader, over and over that there is nothing new under the sun. Everything and everyone in this world will die, decay and descend into darkness. Here today, gone tomorrow.
The meaningless of materialism exposed for what it is, a death cult. Dust to dust and ashes to ashes. Nothing matters. Not you, not any love you create in the world, and certainly not the people that you love and who love you.
An ethereal emptiness that will envelop you and erase you, especially when life is excruciating and evil. A valley of shadows that we will all travel through if we live long enough. Even whatever wisdom you have found will fail to foil death.
My spiritual awakening and rejection of materialism only happened because my heart was filled with overwhelming suffering. All of my life’s labels; career, wealth and even my relationships failed to comfort me. Peace elusive. Death evitable. Love eternal.
In the depth of my pain, I saw the Light. I came to believe in a power much higher than I. I ultimately understood that everything under the sun will perish, but everything under heaven will flourish. Me and you and us.
While I can and will encourage my agnostic and atheist friends to embrace the peace that passes all understanding, I cannot open their hearts, neither will God. We’re self-governing creatures who’ve been given free will and free agency, because genuine love requires genuine freedom.
Anything less would be coercive and compulsory. Like truth and beauty, love and freedom are entwined with the Everlasting. You can’t have one without the other.
What I can do, is love, encourage and support my agnostic and atheist friends on their journey to help them find enduring and everlasting meaning because everyone has a faith. Humbly sharing with them my story and the stories of other people who have found genuine peace. The kind that only happens when you center and commit your life to God. A peace planted in love that overcomes all suffering and all death.
Even though I still struggle with my own stubbornness to live a life of love based on what I want, I know that God is with me. God has always been with me even during my materialistic mayhem and madness. While God is with everyone, every person will determine whether they will live and die under the sun or will live and find life under heaven.
Peace. God loves you.