I read recently that Blaise Pascal (French mathematician, philosopher and physicist, 1623-1662) never said that there is a "God-shaped vacuum" in all of us. What Pascal really said was that we all have an innate desire to seek happiness: "All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end."

OK. If he didn’t say the exact words "God-shaped vacuum," he certainly expressed the thought. Look at his definition of happiness:

But these [attempts] are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself. He only is our true good, and since we have forsaken him, it is a strange thing that there is nothing in nature which has not been serviceable in taking His place."(Pensees 6.425)

As we seek for this intimacy with Christ that is a natural desire, certainly for the regenerate man, we can fall prey to two types of extremism. Both extremes contain truth. And certainly the two are not mutually exclusive. But we tend to gravitate toward one or the other based on our nature and our nurture. We need to make conscious choices to compensate for our natural personalities and the influence of our backgrounds to avoid the extremes of intellectualism and emotionalism.

A preacher of the mid 1800s, in his sincere desire to know God, made choices that led him to apostasy. Francis Faber was reared in strict Calvinistic discipline and teaching and later became an enthusiastic follower of the Oxford Movement in England. The movement began as a united attack on liberalism in theology. But in their intellectual glorification of church history, many of its leaders eventually converted to Catholicism! Now we all know that the study of history is not a bad thing, but intellectualism - where we worship knowledge instead of the God from Whom all knowledge comes - is a ditch to avoid on the road of life.

On the other hand, some of us in our attempt to shun intellectualism, overcompensate and stumble into the ditch of emotionalism. We worship feelings instead of the God Who created us in His image and allows us to experience those feelings. Frankly, a lot of Southern gospel music falls into this trap. Take the modern composer, Bill Gaither, who says he desires to compose and produce music that will speak to the common man. He uses a musical style that has its roots in American folk music, the music of the people. But what he produces now is a far cry from those simple, yet profound, traditions. Today the Gaithers as an institution are entirely caught up in the glitz and glamour of ungodly Nashville. Their product speaks to the emotions - yes, it does. But what is it saying to us, in the lyrics and, perhaps more importantly, the music itself? These folks have fallen into a ditch on the other side of the road. Emotional experiences without a knowledge of God are dangerous just as an intellectual understanding about God without a passion for God is dangerous.

My pastor has told me that he believes that Fundamentalism, in an attempt to counterbalance empty emotionalism, has erred for years on the side of intellectualism. And our young people have wandered away to New Evangelical, Emergent, or Charismatic churches to find a way of worshipping God passionately.

The ironic thing is that at Tri-City Baptist Ministries we use both Faber’s and Gaither’s songs in our church’s music program! Albeit, judiciously. As I said before, there is truth in both extremes. But we try not to get stuck in one ditch or the other. The cerebral folks in my church need to learn to feel rightly about God, not to idealize an emotionless intellectualism. And my touchy-feelies need to learn that just because they feel it doesn't make it true. Our emotions should be trained to respond to spiritual truth.

There is a song that was written to sound like an old Negro Spiritual that expresses "as spirituals do" a simple truth:

Don’t you go to the right;
Don’t you go to the left;
Just keep in the middle of the road.

David Stertzbach II, B.A.
Music Pastor