Rachmaninov: Etudes-Tableaux, Opp. 33 & 39

Our Spiritual Dilemma reveals that most people are confused about their true identity and the meaning to life. They ignore our early history, which was preserved by myth and oral transmission and verified by revelations to many; and they also ignore the arrival of the Messiah, Jesus the Son of God who sent the Holy Spirit to guide us. This is because it suggests to them the need to stop following the easy way of our deceptive world and turn onto the narrow and selective pathway which the followers of Jesus use. This is the pathway back to God who waits on our decision, which we are individually capable of making due to the gift of freewill he has given to all of us. Those who decide to go on this journey can sense a relationship with God.
But the pathway is like a minefield of distractions and of enticements to follow a world driven by greed and pride; resulting in economic rationalism and thus in the destruction of the natural environment. After all we are still in the aftermath of the cultural, political and spiritual war declared by the Enlightenment in the 1800's, which threatened individual spiritual identity and constructed its scientific methods by way of rationalism and empiricalism.
On the pathway we have guidance from the written records in the Old Testament of the contact with us made long ago by God, and revealed by the numerous prophets spread over many centuries and fulfilled by the teachings of Christ in the New Testament. Added to this we have the written works of the early Fathers of the church and of many theologians.
The later philosophers, preceding the Enlightenment period, attempted to use our gift of reason to explain everything. The irresolvable dilemmas of life often do not seem to fit into any philosophical ideal, despite the common desire by philosophers to explain life. The challenge we are confronted with is to either continue to exploit the world, due to our pride and greed, or listen to God and try to understand the much better choice he advises and desires from us.
Christians believe that, eventually, our most difficult and persistent problem involves the demanding choice of accepting Jesus as the Son of God. His message has terrified humanity since time began. Jesus promotes the solution to our dilemma, but a lot of us have not read the Scriptures, and have a limited knowledge, if any, of Jesus, or a distorted knowledge, due to the devious activities of Satan.
Many of us have been preoccupied by our struggle with the influence and questions posed, over the centuries, by other spiritual beliefs, theologians, philosophers, scholars, scientists, rationalists, romantics, psychologists, historians and, more recently, the economists; many of whom, have to some degree, been deceived by Satan. They have much influence on our society. Our post-modern world is obsessed with them. Faith in God is diminishing into being merely one concept in a multiplicity of available beliefs. In our much more divided post-modern society our idol worshippers have predominance - our main idols are money and profit, and imagined 'heroes'.
A relationship with Jesus needs a strong commitment to reject the evil ways of the world. This choice, to accept, follow and love Jesus, is undesirable for many of us, as it demands that we have to love God more than anything else. This means we have to either stay in a lifestyle that is independent from God, or choose to follow Him completely. The conflict between our desires for unlimited freedom and our sinful ways can only be resolved by faith, which results in a way of life that is made possible by the indwelling Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus, and sent by God.
We all struggle to relate to the world as we search for our real identity and try to control our personality; that is if we seek to understand freewill, freedom, wisdom, suffering, knowledge, imagination & salvation of our souls.
The choice, and the dilemma, is individually ours.