An expert From Rabbi Brian’s book, How to Find Out What (The) God (Of Your Understanding) Wants from You.
Your Spiritual-Religious Life
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.
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 – and they have a better understanding of what that
means.
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
and surrender. It makes people 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).
It is my sincere hope that you, as a subscriber to this newsletter
– regardless of your denominational affiliation, past baggage, or
theology – are on your way to maintaining a healthy spiritual-religious
life.
With love,
Rabbi Brian
FYI, if you haven’t as of yet purchased a copy of my book and want to, you can as a paperback, audiobook, or PDF.
