It’s no secret that Deepak Chopra is one of the leading “secular” spiritual thinkers of the modern age. He has sold more books on the topics of God and spirituality that most, and comes to the table with a unique perspective. Deepak believes that the belief in God and/or honing our spirituality is a piece of how we become more healthy. Spirituality is part of our wholeness and to tap into that is to understand more of who we are. Deepak and I differ on who we consider to be God and the exclusivity of Jesus’ claim to be the only way to enter the kingdom of heaven. He would take a more universalistic mindset to say that an pursuit of spirituality is one that leads to a better path or plain of existence. In The Future of God, Deepak says:
If someone tells you “The kingdom of heaven is within,” you shouldn’t think, with a twinge of guilt, Not in me it isn’t. You should ask what it would take to make the statement true. The spiritual path begins with a curiosity that something as unbelievable as God might actually exist. – p.4
I personally love reading authors that I don’t agree with completely. Deepak and I would agree on much of how we should pursue God and how we should act/live in order to exercise a deeper understanding of God and of our own faith. We just believe differently about the end. I believe that all truth is God’s truth. So if it’s true, whether Deepak says it or if I say it, ultimately since God is truth that truth is God’s truth. Deepak stretches my understandings of what spirituality can be. He forces me to view faith and to view following Jesus through a different lens. The lens of trust. So he would say that The Future Of God actually has more to do with the belief that we place in him that God’s existence itself.
[Tweet “Deepak stretches my understandings of what spirituality can be.”]
[Tweet “He forces me to view faith and to view following Jesus through a different lens. The lens of trust.”]
Deepak would say that we create the God we serve. Specifically that: “Every age creates a God that serves only for a while (although that while can be centuries).” I would question that if we create God… God cannot be God. If we create God then we are in turn, God.
[Tweet “If we create God then we are in turn, God. “]
Deepak pushes us to reach beyond our normal capabilities of understanding to live in the place of faith. A place where we surrender our decision making in every breath to the possibilities of spirituality. To live in response to that, not to create a spirituality in response to our needs. Of this thought I can relate. Much of my year has been living in a place of trust in response to who Jesus is and what He promises to do rather than shaping Jesus to my needs or expectations. I’ve never in my journey of faith been in a place where I have believed more, and yet there have been days when I have doubted more than I ever have. I think when we step out and take risks of faith we are forced into a place of mystery towards God. We find ourselves in the darkness of doubt waiting for the light of faith and hope to pierce through.
The Future of God is a great read for the believer and unbeliever alike as we pursue more of what it means to live a life in response the existence of God.
