Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Sceptical

by Timothy J. Keller

I had recently counseled a man who had parents who always answered him in the same way. He told me: “They never said, ‘I would be proud of you if you did this or that.’ When I asked them for guidance, they always said, ‘We just want you to do what you truly want to do—whatever that is, it will be all right with us.’” The man complained that this made him feel unloved and rudderless. He doubted that they would be equally happy with any of his life choices, but he could not get them to reveal the kind of life for which they would admire him. He knew they meant well and that they thought they were being open-minded and modern. However, he said, “No one can tell yourself, ‘I’m okay.’ I needed somebody to tell me, ‘That’s the right thing to do. I’m proud of you!’ I had to go look for other kinds of family, because my family wouldn’t be the family I needed.”