Brentwood Spirituality
By David Carpenter, Head Pastor, Brentwood Presbyterian Church | December 21, 2010
Ultimately….it all comes down to just one question. “What on earth am I doing here?” “Why am I even walking the face of this planet?” “Is there a reason, a purpose to my being alive?” And if you have the guts to try to answer that question, then sooner or later, you are going to come to the other question, the one every other human being who has ever lived has, at one time or another, asked themselves, “Does God exist?”
I say, “If you have the guts,” because asking why we’re here, is not an exercise for the faint of heart. It may be life’s most important question, but it’s also one of life’s scariest. I mean, let’s face it, you don’t have to be Albert Einstein to realize there’s either a reason we’re here….or there isn’t! If there is a reason, then we are wasting precious time if we’re not spending every minute, doing everything in our power to try to figure out what it is. And if there isn’t a reason, well, that’s even scarier!
Top scientists have determined the chance of life developing on our planet spontaneously is roughly 100 billion to one. But the truth is that lots of 100-billion-to-one things do happen. In fact, all eventualities are, in one sense or another, 100 billion to one; meaning it’s possible that we’re here as a 100 billion to one fluke; that everything aligned just so, no reason, no purpose, no why. Yet contemplating that possibility, becoming honest about what that means, trying to come to terms with its ramifications, lies at the heart of the existential dread that has sent many a brilliant mind over the edge. It is THE primordial fear. What if there is no reason for our existence?
Which is precisely why I don’t think there are many people these days who have the guts to even ask themselves the question, “Why am I here? What is my purpose?” Because, honestly, it’s scary. It’s scary if we think we’re here for a reason….and it’s scary if we think we aren’t. And so typically, most people, spend a lot of time, most of their lives, avoiding the whole subject, running the other way.
In my tradition, this season, advent, has been intentionally set up to dare us to ask the simple question, “What if?” What if God actually exists? What if God doesn’t just exist but is actually dying for us to know how important we are, how relentlessly loved we are, how completely, unconditionally accepted and forgiven we are? What if there really is a why, a purpose, a reason for my life? Gulp! I think I need another egg nog. Make it a double! God bless you.
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