In Search of Meaning or God

In Search of Meaning or God

6 December 2025

In recent years, I’ve noticed more and more people turning to a particular genre of books—let’s call it self-help. Guru-like authors with massive followings who sell their books and online products, culminating in a stadium event somewhere in the United States with thousands of devoted attendees.

Their message revolves around the universe, energy, frequencies, consciousness, and similar concepts. In many ways, it mirrors religion: a doctrine, a community, rituals, and the promise of personal transformation. The only difference is that the word God is usually avoided. Many readers don’t want to hear it. The gurus themselves only refer to a vague form of divinity—an impersonal universe, a force living within us.

Yet people invest enormous amounts of time in this. They walk this new spiritual path while completely ignoring the religion they were raised in. Clearly, it is a search for meaning, for something to fill the emptiness that exists in every human being.

What strikes me most is how personal growth is measured in this world—not in character, virtue, or wisdom, but in material success: how well your business is doing, how your career is advancing, and even who attends your birthday party. Only apparently successful people should be there—people who have supposedly “manifested” their achievements.

Another thing stands out: these movements say almost nothing about what happens after death. Everything is focused on the here and now—your energy, your frequency, your success.

And so I wonder: what would happen if these same people spent a fraction of their time truly trying to understand what the New Testament says? What if they didn’t read the latest guru, but a book written by someone who has been canonized? How different might their search for meaning look then?

Miguel Goede