Pilgrim Soldier

I’m currently reading God in All Things by Gerard W Hughes and whilst I cannot agree with some of the stuff that Hughes writes, there have been a number of thought-provoking bits so far.

Last night I read the following:

We are told that two-thirds of the people of Britain are financially better-off and that per capita consumption is higher than ever before. A recent poll indicates that the British people are less happy than at any earlier period. Is this because deep down desires are being ignored or repressed?”
pg 83-84

It’s difficult making judgements about the UK having been away for 5 years, but if I look around Latvia I can see how society has become very much about the pursuit of superficial desires. The pursuit of beauty has become almost an obsession, at least it seems to have done in Riga, and this was exemplified by the car license plate “Beauty” that I saw a few months ago. We have TV programmes that offer a complete make-over, including plastic surgery, to make people more attractive.

But are people really happy? After only 15 years of renewed independance voter turnout in elections is dropping because of disillusionment over corruption. In reality change has happened so fast and has been controlled by a relatively small financial and political ‘elite’ that many people are left shocked by the transition. All around us we see evidence of deep depression, usually coupled with extreme poverty.

People are looking for something deeper. Something is pulling at them but they can’t work out what it is. They are searching and few are finding, so instead they seek what can be found easily and take refuge in what society says they need.

The Church has a challenge ahead of it to communicate that God is the ‘thing’ that people are seeking. When the doors opened after independance this was almost too easy, but now Latvian society has been seduced by the false gods of capitalism, wealth and beauty. Even some of the churches have been as well. But to answer this deep desire of people’s hearts with more superficiality is selling out the Gospel. We need to find ways to communicate the true depth there is following Jesus and the breadth of his teaching.