Listen Closely ! ! !

Not to me! Listen closely to the people around you. What do you hear? Do you hear signs of a change of spiritual climate? I think I do. But don't take my word for it, listen closely.

Oh yes. There will be those who say that the world is "going to hell in a handbasket" these days. But let's remember...

We hear completely opposite statements being made about the state of the world. One person will insist that civilization is going to the dogs, and we are regressing to paganism, hedonism, and atheism. Another person will argue that the world has never been more spiritual, and that spirituality can be discerned not only in the arts and popular culture, but almost anywhere we care to look. The former will say that people are leaving the churches because they are becoming unholy, the latter that people are leaving churches because they want a more intense kind of spirituality than organized religion can deliver.

But look around you. I see something different. I went into a local bookstore and paroused the shelves. Almost a fifth of the store was taken up with a section of books regarding "spiritual" matters. Now I know bookshops are in the business of making money. Those books would not be there, in that quantity, if there wasn't a market for them.

In a secular society, a culture which has written off the sacred and pronounced God is dead, people are interested in something more. People are searching to fill that "God-shaped hole" in their inner person. But come on Christian, do you think for a moment a book entitled Change Your Life in 10 Days (Mind altering CD included) is going to provide lasting answers to that deep search? No way!

So look around. Listen closely. There is a sea change happening. And we, the Christian Community, should stand at the doorstep of this great opportunity poised to walk a journey with our culture which will take us through the spiritual and into relationship with Jesus himself.