No Striving Will Ever Fix Your Own Brokenness

I’ve lived in the little beach town of Puerto Viejo now for about two months, and I can see more clearly than ever before the idols that line these streets.

Most people here would claim that a spiritual world exists. The general consensus on religion would be what’s called “New Age.” Through intentional conversations my squamates and I have gotten to have, street signs, and the amount of people here seeking something other than a week long vacation, I have learned a lot about what is means for someone to call themselves “spiritual” these days. And no, not every person in this town has these exact beliefs, but in general this town is fuelled by people seeking to fulfil a sort of version of these ideas.

To put New Age into perspective, I have seen things like dependence on “charged” crystals to bring full healing and success, the belief that there are hidden energies in the earth that can be channeled through different methods, and an overwhelming amount of drugs that are used to receive “mystical” experiences or hallucinations that are said to bring guidance.

I did some real research on New Age to try and understand it better as a whole along with its history, and here are two quotes that stood out to me:

“…however, many New Agers believed that if a small critical mass of people adopted the more advanced perspective of the New Age, there would be a sudden explosion of higher consciousness throughout the world.”

“It predicted that a New Age of heightened spiritual consciousness and international peace would arrive and bring an end to racism, poverty, sickness, hunger, and war. This social transformation would result from the massive spiritual awakening of the general population during the next generation. Second, individuals could obtain a foretaste of the New Age through their own spiritual transformation. Initial changes would put the believer on the sadhana, a new path of continual growth and transformation.”

Woah. So New Agers are people seeking the end of evil, sin, and fallen man through a mass spiritual awakening they believe can happen if they work hard enough to channel their own strengths and abilities. And ultimately, Yahweh’s heart is also a world where all evil is eradicated for eternity. He yearns for the day we get to live completely saturated in his satisfying love; a day where there will no longer be the barrier of sin between the Holy Creator and his beloved creation. New Agers reflect a piece of God’s heart for the world and don’t even recognise it. The craving for heaven is evident but they are running to the wrong sources to find it.  

New age is also advertised as a way of having control over your life and success, when in reality it is handing your life to gods, spirits, and idols with uncontrolled agendas of their own. Looking at the big picture, if you bow down to Yahweh, the God of the Bible, you won’t have control over your life and if you bow down to any other god or spirit, you also won’t have control over you life; the difference is in the character of the god being worshipped. We become what we behold. And when we worship Yahweh, he actually gives us the power to cast away any other gods, demons, and spirits in his name that try to take control of our lives. 

That means the gospel for these people is that they can’t find truth in themselves, they can’t be God, they can’t eradicate evil through their own sinful flesh, and when we turn inward for answers we will never find what we are looking for. And God knows this. He saw us, piles of immorality made of dust and sin, saw that we could never fulfil the law to perfection, knew that every part of our striving was getting us no where closer to him, and had compassion. He came to us. The God of the universe put on flesh and was slain as the only atoning sacrifice that could take away our sins completely. The veil between us was torn form the top to the bottom because heaven came to earth. 

My heart now lies broken in the reality of a town that doesn’t understand their distorted reality of freedom. Real, God-given freedom is incomparable to what this world defines it as. 

And it’s not just Puerto Viejo that is overflowing with these ideas, New Age is becoming popular all around the world. Specifically, in the United States I see this sort of worship becoming something trendy, hippie, and even encouraged. But the origination of this sort of religion has darker roots than I believe most people know or want to admit.

Yet, I bear a lot of hope for this place. People are seeking, eager for more, lost in themselves, and ultimately unsatisfied. But seeking gives me hope because they know that they haven’t found what they are looking for yet.

So what does that mean for us as the ones who have found the way to salvation? Who know Jesus is the ultimate satisfier on earth and in heaven? It means we get to meet people with the compassion that God met us with when we were just as lost in our own ways. We get to drop any “spiritually superior” attitudes that our flesh so often wants us to tote around, because salvation is forgiveness that we could have never earned. 

Forever left in awe of the mystery of the Gospel. Let it be something I hear for the 267th time in my life and still bow in astonishment of the radical love God has lavished over us.