What to do when you are depressed and want to walk away from God? What to do if life after death turns out to be different from what the Church teaches? What should I do if I am God?

May God direct your gaze to Him. A Servant should not dictate to his Master what task he wishes to receive. A servant must wait until his Master gives him a task at His discretion. Be patient and wait. Your time of waiting on the Lord should not be a time of inaction. May the Lord use this time of waiting to mold and sharpen your character. Give the Lord the opportunity to use this time to purify your life and make you a noble vessel for His service.

If you obey Him, God will prepare you for the task that is just right for you. Undoubtedly, any task given by the Creator of the universe is very important. Human standards cannot be used to judge the importance or size of God-given tasks.

Q: What could be the reason if I am obedient, but the “doors” suddenly close?

Suppose you felt a call from God to do some task, to go to some place, to prepare yourself for some purpose. You begin to act on the call, but everything goes completely wrong. People then often say, “I guess it wasn’t God’s will.”

God calls you to have a relationship with Him. Therefore, be very careful when assessing the surrounding circumstances. Very often we jump to our conclusions too quickly. God guides

us in a certain direction to show us what He intends to do. And then we immediately, based on our own logic, draw a conclusion about what God intends to do. We begin

follow our own logic, evaluate causes and consequences in our own way, and then we reach a dead end. Often we tend to withdraw from our relationship with God and take everything into our own hands. Never do this!

Most often, when God calls you or shows you a direction to move, it is not at all to tell you what you should do for Him. He wants to tell you what He intends to do in the place where you are. For example, God told Paul that he wanted to reach the hearts of the pagans through him.

God, not Paul, wanted to reach the Gentiles. Paul began to move in one direction, but the Holy Spirit stopped him (Acts 16:6-10). He began to move in a different direction. And again the Spirit stopped him. What was God's plan? Reach the pagans. What was Paul's mistake? He tried to find out what He should have done. And then the “door” of opportunity closed for him. Was the door really closed on him? No. God was only trying to tell him: “Listen to Me, Paul. Go to Troas and wait there,

until I tell you where you must go." In Troas, Paul had a vision at night of going to Macedonia to help there. What happened? According to God's plans, the gospel was to spread west to Greece and Rome. God acted in Philippi, and He wanted Paul to join Him.

When you start following God's instructions and suddenly... seem that the doors of opportunity are closing, go back to the Lord and try to find out what God has told you. But best of all, every time you feel the call of God, fully and accurately find out what God is saying. Often He asks you not to fulfill a calling, but to have a relationship with Him. He wants to create something in your life through his relationship with you. If you are moving in a certain direction and everything stops, go back and fully find out what God was saying to you. Don't reject what God said, but find out what He said.

Read below for an example of how a young family felt God's call to work with students. Analyze the advice that is given in the event that you have begun to move in the direction that you believe God has shown you, but circumstances have closed the “doors” to you. Underline or circle these tips. As an example, I marked one of them for you.

I spoke with a wonderful young couple who said God had called them to Saskatoon to work with students. They tried to get a referral for missionary work, but the mission directorate answered: “No.” “Therefore, we were mistaken,” they concluded. I asked them not to jump to conclusions, but to go back to God and ask them to find out what He was saying to them when they felt His call.

They thwarted God's entire plan because one of his plans didn't work the way they expected.

I asked them to go back and re-examine what God was calling them to do. Did He call them for missionary service? Did He call them to work with students? Did He call them to Canada? They felt that God had called them to Canada to work with students.

Then I told them, "Remember that you have felt the call. Just because one door is closed does not mean that the assignment is over. Wait and watch how God will fulfill what He has called you to do. If God indicates what - direction, He will help you move along it. Be careful that surrounding circumstances do not cancel what God has commanded.”

Perhaps God intended to send them to another city. Maybe He wants to choose a different way to financially support their work. Or He needs more time to prepare them for this work. Allow God to carry out parts of His plan in His time. In any case, do what is open to you at the moment, and then wait for instructions for the next step.

Years go by, we make the wrong moves, and then we worry. We start doing something, thinking that it will lead to something good, but it turns out to be the opposite. Of course, if you look deeply, then everything is for the better in the end, but we suffer, we cry! – how to trust in the Lord, reflects Archimandrite Andrei (Konanos).

If a child says: “I don’t want to go to school”

Sometimes we don't know how best to act in a given situation. We don’t know what will be right and what will be wrong. Let me give you a simple example.
In the morning your child tells you: “I don’t want to go to school!” It seems to you that it is very bad not to go to school. But is it possible to say in advance, with confidence, what is bad and what is good?
Recently (you may have heard about this case) a man was driving his son to school. At this time, robbers broke into one of the banks in Kallithea (Athens region - Translation). They took a large amount of money, and ran out into the street and started shooting in the air with a Kalashnikov so that no one would dare approach them. People tried to detain the criminals, called the police, a detention operation began, and then it occurred to the robbers to stop a car passing by in order to escape.
It was the same car in which the man took his son to school. To save the boy's life, the father resisted the bandits, and they shot him and his son. Fortunately, both survived, but the boy was wounded in the stomach, and although he was immediately taken to the hospital and the doctors did everything to ensure that his life was not in danger, the child had severe pain for a long time and the shock did not go away.
And here's the question. If this boy woke up in the morning, cried and told his parents: “I don’t want to go to school! I don't like it there! I generally feel bad today - I want to sleep, my head hurts, and I haven’t done all my homework...” - what would he hear in response? Most likely - “No way! You can't miss school. You should go even if you don't feel like it! And you will go! And at the same time, parents would be firmly convinced that by “giving in” they would make things worse for their child. Yes, I would do the same myself if I were in their place. And you too - isn't it? If your child suddenly began to become stubborn in such a situation, what would you tell him? “School is necessary. You can't miss classes." And I would send him to school whether he wants it or not.
Of course, if the unfortunate father knew that on the way to school such a tragedy would happen to him and his child that robbers would shoot at his son (and him too), then, of course, he would say: “No way on earth.” We won’t go to school today!” But how could he have known about this in advance? After all, school is a necessary, useful thing!

We don't understand what God wants

We start doing something without understanding what it might lead to.
I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this... For example, you go to a store, or just somewhere, or you suddenly meet someone and for some reason you behave exactly this way and not otherwise - and completely unknown, everything is for the better this or vice versa. You cannot know in advance whether you are doing the right thing or not; because you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
And this applies to any deeds - even those that at first glance seem very correct, good and godly. Agree? For example, school - what could be better? But in the case of that boy, if his father had not taken him to school that day, there would not have been a tragedy.
What, in the end, is better for us and what is worse? This is a question to which, it seems to me, we will partially receive an answer only at the end of our lives, and will finally understand it in eternity.


Here on earth, what is considered good can become the source of much suffering. And vice versa: what seems to us to cause a lot of suffering can turn out to be for good. It turns out that we don’t know here, we neglect it there, and then we sit and wonder. For example, you constantly send me messages, emails, constantly asking: “I want to do this, I’m thinking of doing this and that. Tell me, is this correct?
So, since we are not able to predict what will happen, there is only one thing left. I'll talk about this a little later. I see the surprise on your face. You want to know about it right now. Yes, I really don't know what is right and what is wrong. Don't know. I know only one thing, and I will certainly say about it, but later.
I think things would be completely different if we had a living and clear connection with God. Truly clear – transparent. What happens when another person simply and clearly tells you what he really thinks. If only we had the same living contact with our Creator, our God! So that you can ask Him: “Lord, what should I do here?”, and immediately receive the answer: “Do this and that. It will be right." - “Lord, is this right?” - “No, don’t do that. This will not lead to anything good. Change your plans." If our relationship with God were so vibrant and clear, everything would be wonderful.
But this is not the case. There is no clarity, no simplicity. We don't understand what God wants. We don’t know what He wants from me personally, from you personally. But what the Lord wants from me, He may not want from you, and vice versa.
God doesn't want the same thing from everyone. Each of us has our own path, on which we make many mistakes, which is why we suffer so much later. Years go by, we make the wrong moves, and then we worry. We start doing something, thinking that it will lead to something good, but it turns out to be the opposite. Of course, if you look deeply, then everything is for the better in the end, but we suffer, we cry! We think that everything is bad, we are constantly worried and disappointed.

You knock and the door doesn't open? Try again

And this is the tactic I propose here. Let's say you want to get an answer to some question. Knock on the door, ask God. You knock and the door doesn't open? Try again. Won't open again? Well, if you start banging on the door, you can break it and still get inside, but in this case we break in without asking. But it seems to me that the most convenient “door,” God’s best answer to our question, is the one that “opens” freely and easily. Of course, not without work and perseverance, but there should not be any selfish obstinacy here either. So it seems to me.
When trying to open the door, pay attention to the signs that the Lord sends you, and if everything tells you that it’s time to stop persisting, think: “That means this is from God for me. So I won’t put as much effort here, but will change direction.”
Let me clarify one more point. Nothing I tell you today (or any other time) can be absolutely correct. I myself don’t know whether this is right or wrong. I simply made this decision based on what I read and heard - including from you.

And if I were on this plane, I would no longer be there!

Now, as an example, I will give one situation that is familiar to many firsthand. A person is about to fly by plane, arrives at the airport, and then something happens - he lost his ticket, or boarding has already been completed, or he doesn’t have his passport with him. A person begins to worry, fuss, pray: “Lord, I ask You, do something so that I can get on the plane! Do what’s best for me, please!” And so time passes, but the situation cannot be changed: the plane flies away without him. And the person left at the airport is worried, indignant and nervous.
What I'm talking about has happened to so many people. Many people were unable to fly because they were late, forgot their passports, etc. And a few minutes after takeoff - terrible news: the plane crashed. And the man who had just beaten himself in the chest with the words: “Well, how come I didn’t get on the flight!” - now falls to the floor, kisses the ground and says through tears: “What happiness! I'm alive! Alive! And if I were on this plane, I would no longer be there! I wanted to fly away so much, I asked so much, I persisted so much - and this is what would happen now! And I’m alive!”
On the other hand, if one of those who was on that plane and died appeared to me and asked: “Okay, this person was late for the flight and survived. And I? Why did I die? What would I answer him? Nothing. I wouldn't answer anything. Because the mystery of life surpasses our mind. The only thing you can say here is: “Brother, don’t ask me about this. Ask the One who is the Organizer of our life. Ask the One who determines, arranges and knows everything in advance, thinking about each of us. He knows who lives how long, who dies when, and how to die. Only He knows why and for what. Because He knows everything. But I can’t answer you.”
Yes, and all this surprises me. But I know one thing: a person, having survived after this, begins to look at things differently. It's like he's seeing the light. “This is how it could have ended! - he thinks. – So, you should never make hasty conclusions. I was late for the flight, and it seemed to me that everything was very bad, I was worried, I scolded myself. But it is unknown what will happen in the future, what should happen, what is for my good, and what, on the contrary, is for evil.”
And now I want to say what you’ve been waiting for so long from me.
You need to trust God. Some, having heard this, immediately ask: “So, in this case, you don’t need to do anything? Should I sit back and just wait? Of course no. Something needs to be done. You must do what you must, carry out your plans. But all this must be done with trust in God and His love. “Lord, now You bless! Now You - arrange everything. I don't know what my plans, my actions will lead to. Don't know. Perhaps some problems, difficulties, or errors will arise. Perhaps nothing will work out. But I'm starting. Bless me!

We may feel the rightness of our faith, but we cannot always explain or prove it to a non-believer, especially to someone who for some reason is irritated by our worldview. Reasonable questions from an atheist can baffle even the most sincerely believing Christian. Our regular author Sergei Khudiev talks about how and what to respond to common arguments from atheists in the project “Dialogue with Atheists: Orthodox Arguments.” Watch the next live broadcast on the “Foma” Facebook page on Tuesdays at 20.00, during which you can ask your questions.

Let's say I'm not sure whether there is life after death. Should I dedicate my life to searching for what I doubt?

The outstanding French thinker, mathematician and scientist Blaise Pascal is considered one of the forerunners of modern game theory. Game theory is a branch of mathematics that studies the question of optimal strategies when making decisions. It is important for businessmen, politicians and other people who are forced to make choices under conditions of uncertainty.

Blaise Pascal is known for his famous bet. It sounds something like this. Let’s say I don’t know for sure whether there is God and eternal life. If I bet that God exists and win, I gain eternal life. If I bet on God and lose - in fact, there is no God, the life of a person ends at the moment of physical death - I do not lose anything, I will die in good hope and will never know that I was wrong. If I bet on atheism and turn out to be right, I win nothing - atheism neither promises nor gives any blissful afterlife. But if I bet on atheism and lose, I lose eternal life.

In any case, it is worth betting on faith in God.

But isn't it immoral to make a decision not out of love for the truth, but out of personal interest?

It depends greatly on what the truth is. If the atheists are right and there is no God, then, as Richard Dawkins so beautifully puts it, “there is no good or evil, no purpose, no design, nothing in the universe except blind and ruthless indifference.” One of the inevitable consequences of atheism is the radical meaninglessness of the universe.

Within the framework of an atheistic picture of the world, the truth about the meaning and purpose of human life simply does not exist - life simply has no meaning and purpose. Life, including intelligent and self-conscious life, is the product of some completely impersonal natural forces, devoid of any reason, goal-setting or freedom, which do not and cannot have any purpose or purpose for us.

The questions “what are we created for”, “what is our purpose”, “what should we hope for”, “how should we act” are simply meaningless in an atheistic universe.

In an atheistic universe, there can only be factual truths that describe the material world - such as the exact distance from the earth to the moon at apogee and perigee, or the number of protons in a carbon atom, but not moral truths about how a person should act or act. than the meaning of his life.

The statement “the nucleus of a carbon atom contains six protons” describes reality, that is, something that exists independently of us and our thoughts about it. The statement “it is worthy and righteous, it is necessary and salutary to follow the truth, wherever it leads” does not describe any reality in the atheistic universe, nothing corresponds to this statement in the physical universe.

As the poet Georgy Ivanov said,

It's good that there is no Tsar.
It's good that there is no Russia.
It's good that there is no God.

Only the yellow dawn
Only icy stars
Only millions of years.

It’s good that there’s no one
Okay - it's okay
So black and so dead

What couldn't be deader
And it couldn't get any blacker
That no one will help us
And you don't need help.

In the world that Dawkins and Ivanov describe, you have no moral obligation to truth. If the truth is such, it does not impose any obligations on you and makes no promises to you. You are not obliged, and cannot, love her - it would be strange to love “blind, ruthless indifference.” In this case, who do I owe it to? Ice stars?

In such a world, everything is allowed - because everything is meaningless.

The very conviction that we are obliged to seek the truth and that it is worth finding it is possible only in a theistic picture of the world, where this truth is God. If there is no God, then in the face of an indifferent universe it makes no difference what you believe.

In the universe created by God, it is very important to abandon illusions - no matter how convenient and comforting - in order to get to the truth.

After all, in the end we will all stand before the judgment of God, and will be faced with the truth when it may be too late.

In a world without God, you can be consoled by any illusions you like, it just doesn’t matter - you will die and will not be upset at all that you were mistaken. Moreover, in a world without God there is no connection between truth and happiness at all.

The Christian faith in such a world can be as false as desired, but at the same time useful, since it makes people’s lives subjectively better, gives them hope, consolation, unity with their neighbors, removal from bad habits - as statistics show, church Christians, where there is no persecution , are generally healthier and more prosperous. And when all these people die in the bright hope of eternal and blessed life, they will not have the opportunity to be convinced that they were wrong and be upset about this.

If theism is true, you have an obligation to seek God and eternal life, as well as the prospect of finding them. If atheism is true, you have no obligation to be an atheist - nor do you have any hope that atheism will help you in any way.

But doesn’t the search for eternal life require sacrifices in this one?

In some situations - when it comes to martyrdom - yes, a person is expected to give up this temporary life for the sake of eternal life. Although death is inevitable one way or another. But in times of peace, when it is safe to be a Christian, a godly life requires maintaining marital fidelity, avoiding harmful and destructive habits, striving to live in love and peace with others, and generally exercising reasonable moral self-discipline.

Believers (where there is no persecution of faith) are generally happier than non-believers, and this is a truth established by completely secular sociologists. Because sin destroys our lives and brings misfortune already here on earth. The life of a believer cannot be called poor and devoid of joy in comparison with the life of an atheist.

But what if it is not the Christian picture of the afterlife that is true, but some other picture of the afterlife, and you are convinced that you were wrong?

This question can be answered with two considerations - firstly, the position of an atheist in any case is the most losing. Is it possible to get lost when setting out in search of God and pass by His Kingdom? Well, in principle, yes, although the judgment of God is, of course, able to distinguish an error caused by weakness or ignorance from malicious stubbornness. But if you give up searching altogether, you absolutely won’t find it.

Secondly, we do not make a decision in a vacuum, but in the light of certain data pointing to the reality of God and the resurrection of Christ. We have the moral law that points to the Lawgiver, the aesthetic experience that points to the Artist, we have the testimony of the apostles about the Resurrection of Christ, we have the testimony of people who experienced personal conversion about how Christ changed their lives - we can, Having strained somewhat, we declare all this an illusion, but we can accept this evidence, and in the face of this choice, Pascal’s wager helps us.

Isn’t it more pleasing to God (if He exists) to be an honest atheist, who, seeing no reason to convert, remains an unbeliever, than someone who believes for selfish reasons, for fear of missing out on heaven?

Heaven is not a reward for special merit, it is a gift. And the point is not whether a person deserves it or not (no one does), but whether he is willing to accept it. God is not proud, and He will accept a person who runs to him simply because he wants to go to heaven.

The second thing worth noting is that intellectual honesty is an extremely difficult virtue; reconsidering your existing beliefs, even just getting acquainted with the opposite point of view, is a feat, it requires enormous effort. Therefore, you never need to believe in your intellectual honesty - you need to make efforts to get closer to it.

Asking: Many times I heard from the group that we are all God, that each of us has the same creative power as God. My question is very simple. What should we do about it? Okay, so I am God... What's next?

Group: A very interesting question. But the point is, we're asking you the same thing - what's next? Let me explain. When you first started the game, there was only one law, which you enforced was free choice in everything. Many said that nothing would ever come of it, that human experience must be determined, even in the smallest degree, by outside guidance. But you decided that this was not necessary, and the game began. For eons of time, the principle of free choice has remained what is called an outsider in all your games. And finally, now everything is changing, and you are at the forefront of the movement towards evolution. All eyes are turned to the inhabitants of the Earth - pioneers on the path to vibrational transformation.

You started the game with the sole intention of finding God. The entire experience of your earthly existence was an attempt to find and explain the inexplicable - the heart of the universe or, as you call it, God. At this time, you have managed to lift the veil, revealing the greatest secret of all time - you are the gods. A cosmic joke has been played on you, dear ones, because what you were looking for outside has always been within you.

But back to your question: “What’s next?” Dear ones, although you are evolving at an unprecedented speed, you still continue to play the game of one law - the law of free choice in everything. This means you can use your creative power to create whatever you want. Now, you are asking whether you should use it for your own pleasure or to create peace on the planet and eliminate hunger. We tell you that it is not what you create that matters, but only that your creativity begins to take effect. If you were to rid your planet of hunger, you would simply have to find new ways to explore your craft.

That's why we ask you the same question you ask us. What's next? Please understand that the principles of existence have changed. We no longer need to instruct you, teach you, or tell you what you should do. Gone are the days of following the leader. Now you are learning to follow yourself, and it is incomparably more difficult. And yet this is how you can take your next step. You line up to ask us your questions, but you need to understand what's going on from our point of view. The most important task for us is to help creators remember that they are creators. So we tell you that we are not here for

Can the Lord leave people without His care? Conversation with Archimandrite Markell (Pavuk), confessor of the Kyiv theological schools.

– It’s good when everything in life is perfect, but sometimes continuous troubles begin (these are health problems, and troubles in the family and at work). Then it seems that God has completely forgotten and abandoned you. Father, can this be?

– Forsakenness by God is somewhat reminiscent of the passion of despondency, but it is not the same thing. If people mostly give in to despondency because of their many sins, which they do not want to repent of, then a feeling of being abandoned by God can arise not only among great sinners, but also among fairly pious people. As St. John Chrysostom explains, the Lord can leave people without His care for the sake of their testing and improvement. It is similar to a mother leaving a child learning to take its first steps in life. If she had not done this, the child would never have learned to walk. He spent all his time, even as an adult, just crawling.

– It turns out that the feeling of being abandoned by God is deceptive; the Lord never leaves anyone?

– The Lord does not leave a person, even if he has turned away from Him because of his sins. God patiently, like no one else, waits for the return to Him, just as He waited (remember from the Gospel parable) for the return of the prodigal son.

– But the Lord can also be angry with a person because of his sins, in which he is mired and does not want to repent?

– In this case, according to the explanation of St. Theophan the Recluse, a feeling of abandonment by God may arise, which persists for quite a long time, until a person realizes what bottom he has sunk to and repents. Test abandonment usually does not last long.

– Some people actively go to divine services, confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, but over time they experience a period of cooling off towards spiritual life and they stop going to church. Is this also God-forsakenness?

- Not always. Such cooling most often occurs due to the fact that they were unable to overcome their main sins - pride, pride, vanity. While they are given special attention in the church, given special assignments, they experience joy from this, and when such people remain a little in the shadows due to the fact that the priest began to pay more attention to others, they become upset and lose interest in spiritual life.

– Maybe for the same reason children stop going to church? As long as the priest pays attention to them, gives them obedience at the altar or blesses them to read and sing in the choir, then they feel in demand. But as soon as someone better than them appears, due to feelings of jealousy and sometimes undisguised resentment, they leave the church.

– This happens too. It’s not so bad when children leave the church for this reason. After some time, when the resentment passes, they may return here. It’s scary when adults, sometimes even those in clergy, do this. Because of the lust for power, selfishness and pride, if something does not happen as they would like, they begin to blame not only the people around them, but are not afraid to be angry with God Himself. For this reason, someone begins to look for other gods, joining a schism or sect, where there is no need to fight with oneself, but where, on the contrary, they flatter human lust for power and pride in every possible way.

– Is it possible to insure yourself and other people from such a rash step?

– A lot depends on the pastors of the Church. They should try to treat all people equally, with the same love. And not only priests, but also everyone who comes to the temple of God needs to work hard to eradicate pride, vanity and self-love from their hearts with the help of prayer, confession and communion. Sometimes these vices are hidden for the time being behind special piety, but in fact we can love ourselves more than God.

– How to prepare yourself for spiritual tests?

– We must never forget that the Lord, no matter how capricious and disobedient children we may be, never ceases to love us. Therefore, all the troubles that happen in our lives must be perceived as a bitter medicine that will heal us, make us more reasonable, patient, not power-hungry and not selfish, but loving God and other people with all our souls and with all our hearts.