can create by faith, or one can accept the world as it is. There is a third choice. A man can shilly-shally between the alternatives, and make his life an ineffectual hotchpot of both. Not bold enough to create, not cynical enough to calculate, if he gets the worst of both worlds, he only has himself to blame.
Of the two real alternatives, most men accept the world as it is; Christ himself absolutely refused to do so. It is sometimes said that he was master of every situation in which he found himself. Jettisoning any belief in the accuracy of the Gospels, and regarding them purely as myth and legend; I think this must have been due, not to any belief he may have held that he was the only begotten son of God, but to his willingness to use any situation he faced generously to create, so far as he was able; and that demands courage. He must have been not only one of the bravest men, but the most self-disciplined man that ever lived. And the basis of his life was that the living reality of the invisible intangible world was not death, but God!
Viewed in this light, the religious life claims to be a holding fast to reality, not a flight from it. The religious life does not consist of cloisters and liturgies and penances, but in an ordinary life in the community - with this difference, that God is seen to permeate every thought, every act, and every consequence. Of the two worlds the intangible is the more real; because beauty is more real than fashion, honesty more real than accuracy, goodness more real than wealth. And if the religious person is right, God is the living reality in this invisible intangible world. He, the Creator, is the most real part of creation. You may like him or you may despise him; you may worship him or you may ignore him; but irrespective of your views, he permeates your whole being. There is no way in which you can get rid of him - except suicide. Whether you like it or not, it is as impossible to get God out of your limbs and out of your being, as it is to get the blood out of your veins – and live! This is the claim…