Spiritual Health Pt IV: God

Faith, Myth, and the Search for Meaning

The biggest question behind faith often returns to the “original mover” — who created all of this, and what’s the point?

When we talk about spirituality, we often use the word myth. In this context, myth doesn’t mean falsehood; rather, it refers to the story we tell ourselves to make sense of existence. It’s our framework for understanding who we are, where we came from, and what it all means.

As such we all have a myth based on our individual lack of complete understanding. 

Questioning God and the Stories We Inherit

For many people, seeking or even thinking about God can feel uncomfortable. Most of us inherited preconceived notions from our families or religious institutions — images of a white-bearded man sitting on a cloud, dispensing judgment. When that image begins to feel false or limiting, some reject not just the image, but the entire tradition that delivered it.

This “all-or-nothing” response is common: if one part of the story feels wrong, we discard the whole thing. Yet doing so often leaves a vacuum — one where meaning, purpose, and transcendence become difficult to rediscover.

The Problem of Evil and Divine Paradox

Religious traditions often describe God as the Alpha and Omega — all-knowing, ever-present, and the source of everything. But if that’s true, the next question naturally follows:

If God is everything, does that include what we call evil?

If He is all-powerful, why doesn’t He intervene in tragedy?

These are timeless questions — ones that have challenged philosophers, theologians, and seekers for millennia. For many, the traditional answers involving judgment, rules, and damnation are unsatisfying. On the other hand, rejecting all structure and falling into nihilism or anarchy is equally unfulfilling.

It’s common for us to like to play God by providing our own judgements on each situation. 

Examining Our Own Narrative

Perhaps a better starting point is to ask:

• What led to my current narrative about existence?

• Have I ever truly reflected on why I believe what I believe?

For those with a materialistic worldview — the idea that everything can be explained by physics and biology — such reflection can feel uncomfortable. The answer “we don’t know” is often intolerable. Yet uncertainty is an essential part of wisdom. The inability to explain everything doesn’t make the question meaningless — it makes it human.

Why Ask Big Questions at All?

Even if we can’t arrive at final answers, the act of asking big questions has value. Exploring stories, frameworks, and philosophies gives us a moral and existential compass. Our personal values — what we deem true, right, or meaningful — guide our behavior and our purpose.

In that sense, faith isn’t necessarily about belief in a deity, but about orienting oneself toward something beyond the self. It’s about direction more than destination.

Living in the Tension

Faith requires holding opposing truths in balance:

• Discipline and standards, yet unconditional love.

• Infinite meaning, yet the possibility of none at all.

This tension is hard to sustain, which is why many people defer it — handing responsibility for meaning over to authority figures, governments, technology, or religious institutions. But genuine faith requires curiosity, humility, and self-observation.

A Posture of Seeking

Personally, I have no illusion that I’ll arrive at a definitive answer to the question “Who is God?” in this lifetime. Many wise teachers have chosen silence in response to this question — recognizing that to define God is to limit what is by nature limitless.

The only conclusion I can reasonably hold is this: keep seeking.

Keep observing, stay humble, and remain open to wonder. Life itself is a gift — whether you like the story you’re in or not, it’s the only one you get to tell.

Faith, then, may not be certainty at all.

It may simply be the courage to keep looking, to surrender what we can’t control, and to live with hope amid the mystery.

To find the way and walk the path is living. When you stop, you die. 

Seek to find God, whatever that means to you.