The Spiritual-Religious Life and You!
It
is said that we live in four different worlds: the physical, the
emotional, the intellectual, and the spiritual-religious. The first
three are easy to identify. However, most folks get stuck when talking
about the spiritual-religious world. And, they get stuck for good
reasons.
This article should to help you figure out a bit about the spiritual-religious and more importantly about your spiritual-religious life.
We
can define the spiritual-religious as that which is not comprised of
matter, feeling, or thought. In other words: the spiritual-religious is
not the physical, the emotional, or the intellectual. But, this
definition as the absence or negation of other things, doesn’t really
help.
The
spiritual-religious — like truth, beauty, and love — is very hard to
categorize. Moreover and adding to the difficulty, the
spiritual-religious often encompasses notions of God, the infinite, and
that which cannot be defined.
In
Biblical days, the spiritual-religious was characterized as being “like
the wind” because it can’t be seen, yet its impacts are evident.
While
I don’t have a perfect definition of the spiritual-religious, I can
tell you that by creating a relationship to your spiritual-religious
life, you will gain a greater sense of connectedness and perspective in your overall life.
I
don’t mean to suggest that people who lack understanding of their
spiritual-religious lives fail to experience connectedness and
perspective. I am suggesting that those of us who are not the
proverbial captains of our own spiritual-religious ships may experience
feelings of connection only sporadically – as hit and miss feelings –
compared to those of us who have developed “religious-spiritual
fitness.”
Think
of it this way: physically fit people are better able to handle
physical activities and are healthier than those who are unfit.
Similarly, those who have spiritual-religious fitness have a greater
sense that they are loved by an unending love, that the world unfolds as it is supposed to, and they have a better understanding of what those two things mean.
Here’s my favorite way of looking at it: your
spiritual-religious life is like singing. Most of us can sing, but few
of us do it in public. Even fewer do it in public without
embarrassment. I want to encourage you to develop your
spiritual-religious voice so that you can – to use the words of the
Psalms – “sing a new song to God.”
A Healthy Spiritual-Religious Life
People with fully developed spiritual-religious lives feel that they are a part of something rather than apart from everything. They see meaning
in places that others do not. The criticism leveled at them – for
example, of being a dreamer in the face of reality – doesn’t bother
them. They have a sense of hope and of purpose.
Having a developed spiritual-religious life can bring a greater sense of faith-surrender. This makes people both less frantic and more able to distinguish between things that can be changed and things that cannot. Those with a healthy spiritual-religious life, are calmer — believing and knowing that things work out in the grand scheme of things. This belief and knowledge stays with them amidst the good and the difficult times.
People with developed spiritual-religious lives are better able to accept things that are beyond their control. They have the courage to change what needs to be transformed in their lives. They have a deeper perspective
of the world. They see a glass of water as half-full, not half-empty.
In fact, they can even see how one’s attitude can turn a prison into a
monastery (or vice versa). Moreover, their perspective gives them the
ability to sit through and move on from “negative” feelings – as
opposed to sublimating them, denying them, and watching them appear
elsewhere.
Those
with developed spiritual-religious lives feel connected to and have a
meaningful relationship with (the) God (of their understanding).
This week’s
spiritual-religious advice: Think about what will help you develop your
spiritual-religious life and pursue that.
This
week’s spiritual-religious sales-pitch: If you haven’t downloaded the
audiobook, pdf, or purchased a copy of my book How to Find Out What (the) God (of their
understanding) Wants From You, today is a great day to do
so. It’s all about developing your spiritual-religious life. And,
here’s a pitch written by Bishop Gene Robinson:
Rabbi Brian has written what
may seem to some an
oxymoron: a FUN theology book. This practical guide to being found by
God is fanciful, adventurous and serious, all at the same time – like
God. I highly recommend it for anyone who is ready to give God another
try!
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