“It is the
most wonderful time of year.” The holidays can be that: spending time with
those whom we love, vacation, and holiday cheer. Yet, is this all there is to
Christmas being such a wonderful time of year? Is it just about family, food
and exchanging gifts? I ask this because many are left empty at the end of the
festivities, and others sink into depression due to absent family members.
As one searches for the source of wonder, many
turn to spirituality. Ravi Zacharias explains the significance of this reality:
“First, we human beings are incurably religious. We long to worship and
will even create our own objects to worship” (The Grand Weaver, pg. 95).
Furthermore, Stanford University found that there is a positive relationship
between religious inclination and one’s well-being. 56% of physicians believe
spirituality influences health, and 80% of medical schools offer spiritual
care courses. There is even a positive correlation between daily access to
spiritual support and shorter hospital stays among cardiac patients.
Additionally, religious or spiritual belief is a factor in overall
mood elevation and reduction of depression (available from
https://www.lifesharetech.com/spirituality-matters-with-age-part-1/).
But are the
benefits of spirituality merely a placebo or false hope? That depends. You see,
“It is imperative that we know whether the object we worship truly deserves our
worship and actually has the characteristics we ascribe to it” (The Grand
Weaver, pg. 95). Thus, while spirituality can have beneficial effects on
our lives including making this season “the most wonderful time of the year,”
one’s spirituality needs to be checked. What is the basis of our spirituality?
As Ravi points out, “Spirituality does not give relevance to life; rather,
truth gives relevance to spirituality. Your spirituality must be born of the
truth and lived out in grace (The Grand Weaver, pg. 109). Yet what is
truth? The Bible teaches that truth is embodied in a person whose birth we
celebrate this time of year. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Yet, what if one
chooses not to indulge themselves in the spiritual realm? Mortimer Adler, in an
interview with Larry King pointed out that “there are more consequences for
your life that follow from that one issue [God] than any other issue you can
think of.” More consequences for your
life follow from what you believe or disbelieve about God. If you believe and
trust in God, your beliefs, language, behavior, charitability, ethics, etc. all
stem from it. You may not always live consistently with it, but your guilt and
shame or fulfillment comes on how you think about God.
Therefore, is
your spirituality grounded in false hope, or in the truth named Jesus? I
encourage you to join us this Christmas season and discover or refresh how this
Way, Truth and Life can bring wonder to your life the whole year through.
Merry Christmas,
Matt
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