Documenting my interests, beliefs, and research findings.
Earlier this week, I was at an art museum to see an exhibit about American sculpture. There was a small participation area where visitors could draw their own sculptures—something they'd like to see in a public space that they felt would speak to the current moment in their own lives, in the country or in the world as a whole. What speaks to the current climate of the world? What is our collective emotion right now in 2023? From my perspective, it feels like we are all searching for two things: security and truth. This is of course a constant search that we've been a part of since the beginning of humanity. We're always searching for things that will give us happiness and security. But in this moment right now, it feels like we are particularly lost and desperately trying to find something that will save us.
I started writing a poem a couple of weeks ago called “Nowhere Safe,” which explores the idea of global unsafety and the idea that someday, there might be nowhere on earth that is safe. There are so many threats to consider, ranging from climate change to pandemics to violence. The war in Ukraine, as well as our uneasy relationship with China have me feeling more and more insecure, wondering how far things will deteriorate and to what extent war and violence will be a part of our future. Shootings too seem to happen closer and closer to home. After the MSU shooting, I told a woman at church that I can't help but feel that it's only a matter of time before violence comes to the campus I'm on. Only a matter of time until I'm the one facing a gun. I walk across campus and wonder what I'd do if that happened. Would I try to stop the shooter? Would I have time to text my mom? My fiancé?
As we search for a way out, for a way to not only be freed from these horrible realities, but also to explain the beauty still left in the world and to satisfy our yearnings for peace and security, I think that sadly, many of us are turning to things that will never bring us what we really want. We're all searching for a truth that will help us move forward with hope and that will give us some security to rest upon, but I'm realizing just how many people turn to false forms of security. We are obsessed with self-help and psychological analysis that gives us the agency to create or find our own happiness and meaning in life, despite the horrors that we know are realities around us.
An example of psychology and self-help is the NPR radio program Hidden Brain which dives into a different topic each week in an attempt to reveal patterns of human behavior and help us to understand ourselves and others so that we can find greater purpose and happiness. I don't listen to the show as much as I used to, but last Monday, I listened to the week's episode, which was essentially about how losing ourselves in awe-filled experiences (such as experiences of amazing natural places or phenomena) makes us happier, less stressed and more compassionate to others. This is absolutely true, and my point in bringing this show up is not to criticize it for promoting bad psychological research. My criticism of the show is instead that it is a secular show that ends up letting the listener draw their own conclusions from the material discussed and fails to point out just how much concepts such as the benefits of feeling awe actually point to an underlying truth that we are increasingly rejecting: Christianity. It is devastating to me that researchers and interviewers, who can have such a huge impact on our culture, aren't pointing out that the solution to our desperate search for security, belonging and meaning in this life, is being reinforced by their research. The solution is standing right before us. We needn't ask “how did this response to awe serve us as we evolved?” We needn't suggest self help such as “seek more awe-inspiring moments so that you'll be happier.” No, what the people on the Hidden Brain show are missing is that we needn't look any further than our response to awe in the first place. They fail to draw the conclusion that seems so obvious to me and which would help so many desperate listeners out there:
The human race was literally made to worship and find awe. Not in the natural world, which we so often idolize, but in the creator of that natural world, in the God who formed every awesome waterfall, every double rainbow, every immense mountain, every wild storm. We become happier, healthier, more content, more compassionate, when we are humbled in the face of something immense and amazing. That is true. I don't deny it. But the creation of God is not what we should be humbled by. What's even more amazing than creation is the God who created it, simply by speaking it into being. The science of the results of awe is spot-on, but taking them all the way to their conclusion is what would really bring the most peace and happiness to listeners.
I feel like all of us, and perhaps scientists and researchers in particular, are really missing the point. We're seeking answers to explain the origins of the universe, the existence of enormous galaxies other than our own, the secret to human happiness and even the answer to the constantly-asked question of what the meaning of our lives is. We don't need to look any further for the answers to those questions. Christianity has the answers. The problem is just that Christianity is being rejected left and right, and the Bible, which has the answers to our questions, isn't allowed to have a say. We're desperate to find meaning, hope and truth, and we're still looking for those things because the place they can be found is the place we've already rejected. Ironically, our rejection of the one thing that can give us all we crave and more is what led us to the very state of despair that we're in. We wanted freedom from “oppression,” freedom from being called “sinners,” freedom to do whatever we want to do, so we rejected Christianity. With that “freedom” has come the chaos and unhappiness that is increasing daily in America, with the mental health crisis being just one manifestation of that.
We have such a positive response to the feeling of awe because we were made to worship God and to stand in immense and constant awe of his majesty and greatness. When we fall into the pattern of existence that we were made to live in, everything else will start to fall into place. Will our lives be perfect? Certainly not. But will we have a much deeper sense of our own purpose and of hope for the future and security in this life? Yes. We'll never fully succeed in finding security and hope in anything other than God. We can chase awestruck moments just for the rush of being swept up in something larger than ourselves. We can find all our meaning in our own capabilities and success. But those things fail. They wash away and are really only temporary fixes to a much bigger problem. We've rejected the Creator and now look beyond him to find our satisfaction in his creation, which is intrinsically less reliable and good than he himself. Why would we exchange someone as immutable and everlasting, someone as merciful, just and loving as God is for anything lesser than that? We've led ourselves astray and have been led astray by others. The Bible is not the true evil of the world. It is the true truth. That truth is what we've been desperately searching for, and it alone will give us the security, hope and satisfaction that we are trying to find.