(Not too) many ways to find God
Something — I’m not sure what — reminded me tonight of a post I wrote here awhile back about how I write more about religion on this blog than about God. I went back and reread that post, and I was pleased to find it (in my opinion) relatively coherent and honest. I reread the follow-up post as well, and, as I suspected, it was rambling and kind of confusing. I feel like there was a nugget of something still relevant to me in there, though, so I wanted to dig that out and explain what I meant (maybe even more for myself than for anyone else who might read this). So, here I go.
A friend of mine once read the first post linked above and told me that he appreciates the idea that there are “many ways to find God.” I’m not sure how he meant that.
Maybe he just meant it the way I meant it myself. In the blog post I originally wrote, I described a passage from the Bible that suggested that “The Righteous” meet up with the Almighty after death, not even realizing that they were working for the God Squad all along. So, perhaps my friend just meant there are many things you can call yourself so long as you’re being righteous — whether you see it as service to God, or to Allah, or just “doing what’s right” without even thinking of it as a religious obligation. (In some ways, I find that third one even more impressive than doing something because you feel religiously compelled to do good.) The important thing is being good, or rather, doing good.
When my friend said what he said, though, I immediately became concerned about another way one might mean (or interpret) such a phrase. Specifically, I was concerned that one could suggest that there are “many ways to find God” as a way of saying “there are many ways to be righteous,” and I actually disagree with that interpretation.
I mean, there are plenty of ways to just be a nice fellow, but to be truly righteous — like, so righteous that if there is a God, that God would want to shake your hand when all is said and done — I can’t imagine that just being a nice fellow would cut it. I wonder if saying “there are many ways of finding God” is a way of justifying one’s own lack of moral convictions — or, more importantly, one’s own lack of difficult, moral actions.
When a poor guy asks for a buck on the street and we walk by him, perhaps pretend he’s not there, we’re not being The Righteous. We tell ourselves, “Well, there’s more than one way to be a good person” — to go to Heaven, to find God — and we keep walking. We’re fooling ourselves. We are not going to be shuffled into the Meeting God line. That line is for people who care about their fellow humans so much that they feel compelled to do God’s work.
At least, that’s what I think. I realize that places me squarely in some theological traditions and not in others. (Search around for “faith, works, grace, salvation” for more info.) I can’t claim any special knowledge of the divine; but, just like how it feels impossible to me that anyone could be denied entry into Heaven for being born into the “wrong” religion, I simply cannot believe that those of us who live in a friendly but ultimately comfortably selfish manner will get to be among The Righteous.
Let me be entirely clear: When my friend said what he did, I became concerned not because my friend is a dick (he is not) but because of my own sense of unworthiness. I feel like I constantly justify my own actions (or inaction) in the world by thinking of getting by as good enough. That’s just how I feel about me, but I sort of suspect I know others who will relate to this if they think hard enough about it.
Maybe getting by is good enough, depending on what you want to get out of life. But I can’t imagine it’s how you find God.
