What if my friends think I'm crazy??
"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring,"
“I think something is stirring, and I kinda want to explore it further. But what if my friends don’t understand me, or my family thinks I’m crazy?”
That’s such a great question! I get it. I’ve seen so many people stop their spiritual journey, before they ever really got started, because they’re worried about what others may think. So, I guess I’m not sure how else to say this, but…they might!
I wonder if you’d give me a minute, though, to try and encourage you to stay curious and to follow that little niggle inside of you that senses there must be more, even if your friends are saying, “Stop wasting your time on silly things,” or your family is worrying about you scrapping your career and joining some secret society.
This journey of discovering your soul may feel lonely and awkward at times. I observe this is especially true for those of us who grew up in environments where we ‘just don’t talk about feelings,’ or work in places where we don’t share personal things.
But I want to assure you, you’re far from alone.
“Around 70% of Britons say that they are in some way spiritual.”
I’m guessing you’ve seen at least one or two headlines talking about the renewed spiritual openness in large parts of the West? That’s not to say the average person has any idea what ‘spiritual’ means or that they are actively engaging in activities of a spiritual nature. But the default is no longer, ‘Everyone around me is a diehard atheist.’ On the contrary, it actually seems we’re witnessing a breakdown of the brash brand of non-belief broadcast by New Atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens. Their angry sound-bites have definitely been dampened, perhaps because their conclusions sounded too simplistic… and too hopeless.
What I’m saying is, in case you haven’t noticed, there is a growing swell of people who seem to be interested in pursuing spirituality and faith.
In his recent book,Soul Boom, modern sage Dwight Schrute (yes, I know his real name is Rainn Wilson!) says,
The reason why spirituality is important is because it is reality.
If we want to fix inequality, end war, and save the planet, then we must
‘deeply reimagine our systems based along spiritual lines.
Fellow actor Chris Pratt puts it this way,
“You have a soul. Use it.”
A prominent contributor to The Times has recently written about how it’s become too difficult for him not to believe.
This Lent I will turn atheism to ashes. After growing up a godless Jew, and then appreciating that I don’t not believe, I now feel at home with Anglicanism.
Wikipedia founder Larry Sanger’s blog entries reveal that, after a twenty-five-year journey, he now feels the same way.
Throughout that spring, I was very uncomfortable because I knew that accepting the proposition that God exists was tantamount to rejecting methodological skepticism. I frankly wondered if what I was doing was irrational. What was I doing?
So it seems there’s a shift taking place in Western society where it’s ok to openly wonder where the real answers lie.
You won’t have to do a deep dive to discover that my desire for you to explore your spiritual nature comes from a Christian perspective. The same is true of several viewpoints shared above. And, if you’re just starting to dip your toes in here, I can imagine that pursuing the generally spiritual feels a whole lot safer than jumping too quickly into a full-on belief in God. That’s ok, and fairly normal, at this stage. But I do want to highlight, right at the start, that something interesting often happens for those who choose to ‘swim’ in this space with an open heart and open mind; many end up experiencing God in a way that may not be easy to explain, but is even more difficult to explain away.
That’s not meant to sound scary. So, before you run away, I want to reassure you. When I talk about the spiritual, I’m not suggesting you turn off your brain in order to somehow transcend space and time, or trying to get you to tune your body into some kind of invisible energy. No, what I’m speaking about is much more grounded. It’s not about detaching from the real world. It’s about being able to live more fully in it.
That’s because, on this spiritual journey, I believe you will not only discover your soul, but you will uncover its deepest longings. It may have been buried for quite some time, but you will come to realise that your soul yearns for peace and purpose, joy and satisfaction, freedom, fairness, and connection. Best of all? I believe it’s possible for your soul to actually find them.
Then, instead of your friends and family thinking you’ve gone completely mad, I think you will find them to be surprisingly supportive and, potentially, very open. So why not invite them along?
I suppose it is fair to say that, as you progress on this journey, you will start to seem a bit different from the rest of the world around you.
But it will be a good different. Not crazy different.