“On A Spiritual Journey”
The lady sitting next to me on the plane engaged me in conversation, and soon it came out that I was a preacher. She then informed me of something I have heard with some frequency lately from people out in the world. She said that she was on a spiritual journey. It began in 2004. She was in city government in a northern state, but left that job to move with her husband and son to the deep south where she now works as a civil engineer. She is well educated and well-to-do, from what I could gather. She grew up Lutheran and her husband grew up a Methodist. Both were disenchanted with hypocrisy and liturgy in their particular congregations. But, with the move and the fact that their only son was now in High School, she was searching.
Her “journey” took her in spiritual, mystical directions. In the process, she has taken up tai chi–she now embraces the physical aspects but rejects the spiritual part. She had investigated Buddhism, but found it unsatisfactory. She has discovered the gnostic gospels, and especially is drawn to Pistis Sophia (the gnostic tradition of Mary Magdalene). More recently, she has become absorbed with Michael Newton, a former atheist who has come to believe in reincarnation and helps his patients “discover their past lives” through hypnosis.
She was truly open and while I listened at length, I tried to gently guide her to biblical truth found in passages like Hebrews 9:27, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, and 2 Peter 3:11ff. We found common ground and she is very open to the possibility she is not on the “right path.” It was difficult, however, to get her firmly convinced that God’s sole means of communicating was through scripture. I ended our discussion by telling her that if she remains honest in her quest, she will find the answers for which she seeks.
That interchange made me think of Paul’s visit to Mars Hill in Acts 17, though this woman grew up in a church teaching belief in Christ. She represents a world of people in our culture searching for something spiritual to fill the hole in their souls. While the result of our impromptu, two hour Bible study ended inconclusively, I am certain that there are people in search of God all around us. Our job is to guide them toward the Way, the truth and the life (cf. John 14:6). No one will find what they seek apart from Him. No one and nothing else can fill that “hole” in the soul that is Christ-shaped. Let us be ready to guide whoever God puts in our path that may be on their own spiritual quest!
–Neal Pollard