Old friends from my early career days recently found me through social media, and each time one of their greetings arrived I was whisked back 25-30 years, when we first got to know each other well.
Then I discovered just how much has changed over time—not just in how they look, but also in how some of them now have a strong, outspoken interest in spiritual and religious matters. Nothing even close to religion ever surfaced in all the years we knew each other and worked together.
Their interest in living a more spiritual life and connecting with a church was surprising news for another reason. It’s taking place in a world that we’re told is witnessing the twilight of religion. Statistics show a rise in the number of unaffiliated religious people. Commentators often point to religion’s uncertain future and an increasingly secular society.
My friends are unmoved by that viewpoint. They simply, naturally, wanted to be more selfless and compassionate, feel more secure and less materialistic, be a lot happier and healthier. And they found that the path that most directly got them there was spiritual.
What brought about the change? I suppose there’s a long list of possibilities: maturity, education, parenthood (and grandparenthood), life experiences, and a world that offers few solutions.
But I believe even more is going on.
In conversations with my friends, I sense a higher, spiritual nature and outlook on life emerging. For some, it comes across as having more patience at a time when they used to be in a rush. For others, it’s letting go of longstanding grudges and forgiving. Others have resolved to spend more time praying. Some now support worthy causes they ignored in the past. Still others have become devout Christians and take seriously their role and opportunity to heal suffering in society.
Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, likens the impetus for such change to an inherent childlike willingness to leave the old for the new. In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures she writes, “Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea” (p. 323:32).
As this relates to character changes, such changes can be subtle. But over time they add up to a profound change, a renewal—what Paul described to the Ephesians as putting on “the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph 4:24).
That “new” man is actually the true idea of man as Spirit, God, created him to be. It’s an advanced idea that prompts us to stop thinking of ourselves in bland, materialistic ways. Even just a glimpse of the fact that man’s being isn’t material, but rather entirely spiritual, can, in the face of outward human appearances, seem completely new.
That newness may show itself as an increasingly brighter outlook, a sense of a higher, more spiritual selfhood, and a growing realization that the old way of thinking of ourselves as materialistic mortals is superficial, a thing of the past.
Do my friends’ isolated examples of spiritual renewal call into question the larger trend data regarding religion today? Not necessarily. But they suggest to me that while the tendency of some might be to buy into the perception that religion’s influence is diminishing, that’s not the full picture.
When experiences like these come into notice, I believe we’re glimpsing something powerful and enduring going on below the surface. It would be a mistake to overlook the invisible divine influence, stirring and uplifting human thought, gradually transforming hearts and minds, and the greater potential for spiritual growth that comes with that. People who see themselves in this new light feel better about themselves. They are happier and healthier, and are likely to see and treat others in a new way. It has a ripple effect.
Although you’ll not find the word “religion” used anywhere in the Old Testament of the Bible, there’s no shortage of references to light, and according to the Bible the source of that light is God, who saw it as purely good. Religion, at its best, is a lot like light. It’s the illuminating and transforming power of divine Spirit that comes with spiritual discoveries, advanced ideas.
Some might see only occasional glimmers of this light and conclude that we’re drifting into twilight. Others, like my friends, see these glimmers differently—as the promise of a new day. To them, religion’s future looks bright.