Our Stories
The Life You've Always Wanted
By Abigail Short | posted 02/14/2008
"I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of." (John 10:10, The Message)
Have you heard about the latest best-selling book and video phenomenon? It's called The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, and it claims to tell you how you can get anything and everything you want in life. It sounds like a preposterous claim, but people are eating it up. What's the secret of The Secret? "The Law of Attraction," or the idea that "thoughts are the primary cause of everything" (p. 33). In other words, everything in your life is a result of your thought patterns, so that what you spend your time thinking about will be attracted to you.
Contrast that idea with the first line of The Purpose-Driven Life: "It's not about you." Those are words that we as humans, and especially we as Americans, don't like to hear. We are naturally self-centered, and we would love to believe that the universe really does revolve around us. Unfortunately, that idea stops sounding so great when it implies that we've caused our own misfortune.
If you've bought The Secret, it is not my intention to offend you. Instead, I would encourage you to read or watch it with a critical eye. Much of its teaching flies directly in the face of science (calling it a "Law of Attraction" as if it had the same basis of proof as the law of gravity), not to mention Christian theology. There is certainly value in having a disciplined thought life, which is one aspect of the book, but The Secret goes far beyond that assertion.
So why would a book based on such a dubious principle become so successful? For it is indisputably popular. I believe that much of its popularity comes precisely from the question of suffering that it so uncomfortably raised. People are in pain and are desperate to know why there is so much of it in the world - and more importantly, how they can get rid of it.
I won't pretend that I can fully deal with this question in a lifetime, let alone in a paragraph. But we mustn't underestimate the question's importance, so I'll try to address it briefly. The Bible shows us several causes of pain. One is the existence of an enemy, who prowls the earth trying to destroy us (1 Peter 5:8). Another cause really can be that we bring it upon ourselves or one another, for some suffering is the consequence of sin (see, for example, Romans 1:27). Some suffering is simply the result of living in a fallen world, a world that was once perfect and is now subject to decay (Romans 8:21). However, in any given situation, we may never know the cause or causes of our pain - not in this life, anyway, when it really matters to us.
That's the bad news. The good news is that we know the true "secret" to living an abundant life - and it's not a secret at all! Jesus not only promised it, but he commanded us to tell others about it! Though he doesn't promise to take away our pain, he does pledge never to leave us (Hebrews 13:5). He also gave us an extravagant promise: "I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of."
But what does that mean? Clearly most Christians aren't living the life of social and material wealth that The Secret promises. It feels too clichéd and, frankly, a bit insincere to say we should simply adjust our definition of "abundant life." But perhaps that really is the best answer. We can continue to believe that we are the center of the universe and the cause of our own situation, with all the implications that follow - or we can admit that maybe there is a Creator, and that he has a better grasp of the universe than we do and knows what will truly bring us joy and fulfillment, independent of our circumstances. On which idea will you bet your life?
Abigail can be reached at abigail@DaughterOfLight.com<.