HoHum:
As Vice President, George Bush Sr. represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush noticed a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev’s widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev’s wife performed an act of courage, hope, and civil disobedience: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband’s chest. There in that citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life.
WBTU:
I remember it well. I was raised in the church but when I got to be a teenager I became cynical about faith in God. We moved to Indianapolis from the country and I had a lot of time to myself. I hated the way my life had turned out. I was away from my friends and away from the life that I had known. I hated this new place. I was usually not tired come bedtime. I would lay on the bed miserable, sleep refusing to come. Sometimes my thoughts would drift to a reoccurring nightmare. I would dream that there was no land, no baseball, no basketball, no trips back to the country, no family, no friends, no work, no people, no earth and it would go on forever and ever. An empty universe. I lay in my bed as a 13 year old wondering deeply about what it would be like if I were alone in a universe where nothing else existed. For eternity. My mind needed relief. I was engulfed in fear, and my sense of safety felt overwhelmed. What would it be like if nothing existed, forever and ever? Or worse yet, if I were alone by myself in an empty universe for eternity? As I walked along the edge of nothingness, along with it came the thought: Someday I will die. Where will I go? Who will I be with?
Let’s be honest with ourselves: Do we genuinely believe God exists? If we do, do we believe that he understands us and is there for us in the troubles and trials of our lives? Or is God dead?
In our day it is popular to be a skeptic. To come to the abyss of nothingness and believe that each individual is all there is. In his book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion. Dawkins believes that, "when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." He has come to the nothingness and concluded that is all there is.
He stands on the backs of others like Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud traces it all back to our birth. When we are born we are dependent upon our mothers. Soon this function is replaced by the father, who retains that position for the rest of childhood. When an individual transitions into adulthood, the father figure is replaced by many with the idea of God. According to Freud, the struggles of life and the lack of strong, loving father figures inspired the construction of an imaginary Father-God. This Father-God provides for all the psychological needs of the deluded. According to Freud we need to grow up and mature by abandoning this idea of God because God does not exist. We are alone in the universe.
Here is the kicker though: Everyone goes through this. Many experts agree that those childhood fears of being alone in a universe of nothingness, left with nobody to care for or love them, are innate, inborn, given to us when we are conceived.
Attachment theory is a psychological model that attempts to describe the dynamics of long-term and short-term interpersonal relationships between humans. The evolutionary theory of attachment (John Bowlby) suggests that children come into the world biologically preprogrammed to form attachments with others, because this will help them to survive. In that regard, many study primates (monkeys) and see that they also are preprogrammed to form attachments because this is advantageous for each monkey. However, how does evolution preprogram us to form attachments? Christians are now using this to say that evolution does not preprogram us to form attachments, but our creator God has made us this way not just to survive but also to find Him. “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” Acts 17:26, 27, NIV. See, God put these attachment desires within us to not only connect with others but also to connect with God himself.
To illustrate what I am saying, let’s look at a character in the Bible, David. Start in 1 Samuel 16.
Thesis: How David responded to the nothingness made all the difference in his life
For instances:
David’s confrontation with nothingness
King Saul had abandoned the Lord and his commands. Therefore, God sent Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as the next king. Jesse’s sons passed before Samuel but the Lord did not chose any of them. “So he (Samuel) asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered, “but he is tending the sheep.” Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”” 1 Samuel 16:11, NIV.
He is tending the sheep. Imagine the life of the shepherd David. David was a teenager, near 13 years old. Evidently he was the only shepherd that Jesse could afford. There are times of the year and circumstances in the flock that would dictate when David would be gone from home, sleeping amongst the sheep. At this young age David would be all alone taking care of the sheep. We can imagine David looking up at the stars at night and thinking: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” Psalms 8:3, 4.
Do we genuinely believe God exists? If we do, do we believe that he understands us and is there for us in the troubles and trials of our lives? Or is God dead? Like many, David began to think about his existence. Is there anything beyond myself? What would it be like if nothing existed, forever and ever? Or worse yet, if I were alone by myself in an empty universe for eternity? Someday I will die. Where will I go? Who will I be with?
As David contemplated these things, we find the Lord delivering him from trouble. David was a faithful shepherd and he was concerned with the sheep. We find David saying this after his confrontation with nothingness: “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear...”” 1 Samuel 17:37, NIV. Lions and bears would attack the flock at night. Imagine a dark night and David hears something so he goes to investigate. He finds a lion and instead of running away, David attacks the lion. An another night he finds a bear and instead of running away, David attacks the bear. Those animals should have killed David. Who delivered him? David was convinced that God had delivered him.
“A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” Psalms 23:1-6, NIV.
David believed in God and that belief make all the difference. “But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart...”” 1 Samuel 13:14, NIV.
David’s confrontation with Goliath
David believed that God was real, and David was willing to do anything to stand for him. David may have seemed a bit naive and a little overconfident. Sent by his father to visit his brothers in battle, David was stunned by what he saw. As the armies of the Philistines lined up to battle Israel, one huge Philistine named Goliath mocked and terrified the entire Israelite army. Even David’s older brothers were afraid. David asked, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”” 1 Samuel 17:26, NIV. Wholeheartedly believing his army served his living God, David made a decision to fight Goliath. With 5 smooth stones and a sling, David set out to face Goliath, one on one. A nine foot, “I am going to kill you” monster. When Goliath saw David coming, he mocked him. “He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.” 1 Samuel 17:43-46, NIV.
What? Don’t we all wish we had that kind of confidence in God to come through for us? David wins but stop for a moment and put ourselves in David’s shoes. Do we so confidently believe that God is alive and able to help us to face our Goliaths? Who doesn’t want God on their side? We all do. But, as we call on God to help us, do we really believe it makes a difference? Will we, like David, stake our lives on it? “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6, NIV.
So what?
““Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” Matthew 22:13, NIV. Discussion of darkness, the presence of God is completely gone and we are all alone for eternity. Hell is not one big party with our friends. More like time alone with our thoughts for all eternity, but even worse than that.
Plan of salvation
Seedthoughts from Dr. Tim Clinton and Dr. Joshua Straub's book, God Attachment, Chapter 1 Does God Matter?
