LOOKING FOR GOD

There is a quote I came across some years ago that struck me as so true that it has become a firm part of my spiritual understanding of life.

Although the internet has collectively decided that G.K. Chesterton said it, I recently discovered the quote originated in a 1945 novel by Scottish author Bruce Marshall called The World, the Flesh and Father Smith.

In one scene in the book, Father Smith is confronted by a worldly woman looking to confirm her skepticism about faith. In the course of their conversation about his vows of celibacy, the woman concludes that "Religion is only a substitute for sex".

Father Smith's response encapsulates a truth worth contemplating and holding onto: “I still prefer to believe that sex is a substitute for religion and that the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.”

“Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord. “My people have committed two sins: 

They have forsaken me, the spring of living water,

And have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”                              - Jeremiah 2:12-14