Faith Is Nothing Like I Thought It Would Be

Summary

Summarized wtih ChatGPT

David Brooks reflects on his journey to faith, which is rooted in deep emotional experiences rather than strict beliefs. He emphasizes that faith is more about longing and connection to something greater than oneself. Ultimately, he finds meaning in the spiritual moments of joy and goodness that come from serving others.

Key Takeaways:

1. Embrace moments of wonder and awe as part of your spiritual journey.
2. Recognize that faith involves longing and connection, not just belief.
3. Engage with community and sacred stories to enrich your spiritual life.

Highlights from Article

“Religion is not made of these moments; religion is the means of making these moments part of your life rather than merely radical intrusions so foreign and perhaps even fearsome that you can’t even acknowledge their existence afterward.”

These thoughts helped me think more deeply about my job. I had approached journalism with the vague sense that the people we cover have a basic dignity by virtue of being human. But seeing them as creatures with souls, as animals with a spark of the divine, helps me see people in all their majesty. Seeing them simultaneously as fallen and broken creatures both prepared me for their depravities and made me feel more tender toward our eternal human tendency to screw things up. I hope I see each person at greater height and depth.

Later, I came across something that the historian George Marsden wrote about Martin Luther King Jr.: “What gave such widely compelling force to King’s leadership and oratory,” Marsden wrote, “was his bedrock conviction that moral law was built into the universe.” If there is an eternal moral law, maybe there’s a lawgiver?

When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, they led fearful, hard lives. Their spirits were crushed and they were, according to the scholar Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg (borrowing from Oliver Sacks), “unmusicked.” But as they crossed the Red Sea on their journey home, Miriam led them as they burst into song. They had been “remusicked.” My life feels remusicked since my own little Exodus journey began.

repetitive!” I was once asked to pray for the victims of Syrian war atrocities, and it came out like a newspaper column: “God, please enforce the relevant U.N. resolutions. Please organize a coalition of regional powers to create safe zones for the refugees.” They say that prayer is best defined as “astonished reverence,” a state that I seldom achieve.

As Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik put it, a Jew “received the Torah from Sinai not as a simple recipient but as a creator of worlds, as a partner with the Almighty in the act of creation.”

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