“Signs of a true revival have been piling up lately”
As we focus on gratitude this Thanksgiving week, let’s consider a recent article in the Atlantic that offers surprising encouragement about evangelical Christianity. Spencer Kornhaber reports:
Signs of a true revival have been piling up lately. After years of decline, church attendance has leveled and might even be climbing. TikTok brims with “Christiancore” aesthetics and tradwives. An administration whose Millennial vice president converted to Catholicism just six years ago is pushing explicitly theological policy crusades. And the musical middle has gone megachurchy, filling the Billboard Hot 100 with country-tinged redemption tales and actual worship songs.
The rest of the article focuses on a new album by Rosalía, a singer Kornhaber describes as a “Catalan superstar.” In the album, she “adopts the sound and ambitions of a classical oratorio to mirror the modern quest for salvation, in all its thrilling and frustrating contours.”
Kornhaber writes: “The question of what we believe about our souls and what that belief demands is more serious than lifestyle fads or partisan politics allow for.” I completely agree. However, he then concludes: “Embracing that search, Rosalía preaches, can be as significant as having an answer” (my emphasis).
This is an assertion we need to discuss today, for reasons that far transcend the article that asserts it.
Science documents positive effects of religion
In Why We Believe: Finding Meaning in Uncertain Times, Oxford theologian Alister McGrath cites evidence that the “act of believing” confers significant benefits such as “giving structure to life, providing reassurance, reducing anxiety, and facilitating social integration.”
This is good news, since we are believers by nature. The Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith writes:
All human beings are believers, not knowers who know with certitude. Everything we know is grounded on presupposed beliefs that cannot be verified with more fundamental proof or certainty that provides us assurance that they are true. This is just as true for atheists as for religious adherents. . . . There is no universal, rational foundation upon which indubitably certain knowledge can be built. All human knowing is built on believing. That is the human condition.
However, when we practice our beliefs through religious activities such as prayer, Bible study, worship, and other spiritual disciplines, we seem to experience especially noteworthy benefits. For years, scientific research has documented the positive effects of religious observance. From mental health and social stability to charitable giving, civic engagement, and overall wellness, the pattern is clear: engaging in religious practices is good for us.
So we can be thankful for the increase in religiosity Spencer Kornhaber and many others are reporting these days. As he notes, “Embracing [the] search” for spiritual meaning produces significant benefits.
But can these benefits be “as significant as having an answer”?
Drenched on my morning walk
I went for my early morning walk yesterday, ninety minutes before rain was predicted to begin in our area. Ten minutes later, it started to rain; by the time I made it back home, I was drenched.
The thought occurred to me: Humans are better at predicting and controlling what we create than what we do not. Mechanics can predict the performance of cars more effectively than meteorologists can predict the weather because people make cars but God makes nature. Doctors can do much to treat the diseases of bodies made by our Creator, but medical science ultimately cannot prevent death—only God can.
There are clear benefits to the practice of religion, just as there are benefits to walking in nature or visiting an art gallery. Similarly, an attitude of gratitude lowers the stress hormone cortisol and increases “feel-good” hormones like dopamine and serotonin.
But the greatest benefit of thanksgiving, like the greatest benefit of religious practice, comes not from the act but from its object.
When we can “do all things”
Paul assured us, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17, my emphasis). Notice that the apostle did not say “in the church” or “in Bible study.” His Greek phrase, translated “in Christ,” means “located within or connected directly to Christ.”
The Bible is a sacred book (2 Peter 1:21), but it is a means to the end of knowing its Author personally (John 20:30–31). Worship is transforming to the degree that we focus our hearts on an Audience of One and are awed by him (cf. Isaiah 6:1–8).
As we noted yesterday, our ultimate purpose in life is becoming like Christ (cf. Romans 8:29). However, the power to know him in a transforming way is found not in us but in him. He alone has the ability to defeat our temptations, pardon our sins, heal our deepest hurts, and empower our faithful service.
When we seek to know the living Lord Jesus intimately, he makes us like himself and continues his ministry in the world through us. As Paul testified, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV, my emphasis).
But only then.
Warren Buffett’s farewell advice
The famed investor Warren Buffett is retiring at year’s end and recently wrote his farewell letter to shareholders. In it he advised:
“Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it.”
I want mine to say, “He lived to know Christ and make him known.”
What do you want yours to say?
Quote for the day:
“Study to know Christ more and more, for the more you know, the more you will love him.” —George Whitefield
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