Goal or Trust

September 22nd, 2009 by yohan abeynaike

Spiritual gurus seem to pop up everywhere these days. They promise a variety of blessings for their adherents. These include good health, financial security, success in business/studies and happiness in relationships. Their techniques range from meditation to positive thinking to harnessing the energy of mother earth. Many are attracted and some do receive the intended results that they are looking for. If religion is essentially about how we can successfully get these blessings into our lives then isn’t it a glorified form of bribery? Is Christianity, similarly, just an ‘answer to all our problems’ or is it radically different?

Dr. Vinoth Ramachandra in his book God’s that Fail , argues that it is idolatrous to think about faith in these terms. He writes that “at the heart of idolatry is the attempt to manipulate ‘God’ or the unseen ‘spiritual world’ in order to obtain security and well-being for oneself and one’s ‘group’ (whether family, business corporation, ethnic community or nation-state). Biblical faith, in contrast, is the radical abandonment of our whole being in grateful trust and love to the God disclosed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ”. Ramachandra adds that “faith involves us in embracing the pain and confusion of others, and in being willing to live with uncertainty ourselves while moving towards a future that is already at work among us.”

Jesus’ public ministry was preceded by a period of intense temptation. One of these was the desire to make the satisfaction of his own self the goal of his existence, which Jesus rejected (Mt. 4:3, 4). Later he teaches his disciples to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness and trust that God will provide for them (Mt. 5:33). He warns his disciples not to

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