Article October 30, 2000 Issue

A book that speaks to the heart

By Richard Bergenheim

There is a quiet but intense search for spirituality today. This search is earnest, and the paths people are taking are certainly diverse. A visit to the bulletin board in your local community center or to the "Self-help—New Age—Spirituality—Occult—Religion" section of your neighborhood bookstore reveals the breadth of search options.

A lot of people are striving to find or understand God—but not the God of their childhood. In fact this very word God is a stumbling block to many people, because it is encrusted with ideas and beliefs they reject or can't understand.

For example, a while back I was speaking with an office manager who was facing a great deal of pressure and conflict in her office. Finally, a friend urged her to pray, as nothing she had done had improved the situation. But she wasn't sure she knew how to pray. She asked me how I would pray. I said that I would begin to affirm as frequently as I could, "God is in this place." I repeated this several times, and I noticed that every time I made this point, my friend shrank back. The idea frightened her. I realized that to her, God was a Judge, often an angry Judge. So this affirmation, that God is present now, gave her no comfort at all.

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