We all get a taste for spiritual life somewhere along the way that eventually ruins us for anything else. It could be the moment we're born again, filled with the Holy Spirit, or even that deep longing for something we can't quite put our finger on. Something like the burst of enlightenment.
Whatever it is, it takes us unawares and out of our comfort zone. Like a slow journey home to a place we've never been before. But we yearn for it and we know it's home.
So, instead of laying out a program to follow, here are some ideas and observations I hope you can use in your own personal journey and practice.
In and Out
Before we work out our spiritual life, we must enter the long sometimes strange, sometimes dangerous adventure within.
It's said of the disciples that they were recognized as being with Jesus.
Just as Moses gazed on God's back and emitted God's presence glowing, so too the disciples carried the fragrance of Jesus presence with and within them.
Our whole spiritual life is about Presence though we rarely see it, we may see it's effects.
Extroverts might see this journey as self-centered while introverts might see it as an escape, but the wholeness of being includes both extremes and transcends them.
Our wholeness of being includes our polar extremes and transcends them.
Here's Our Problem as The Church
"Before Abraham was even born, I am."Jesus is always in the present, the eternal living present, no veils, no layers of tradition to wade through, no rites to invoke. Jesus is present, right here and now.
Within our church structures, traditions, and practices, we have generation after generation, layer upon layer of meaningful and God fought out tradition. All resting upon the living presence of Christ. They're like beautiful veils we go through in our religious practices to enter the presence of Christ.
The Journey In
Our traditions focus us. But on what? To what end?
Spiritual traditions though designed to bring us into our spiritual life, tend to structure our outworking of wholeness more than its in working.
All spiritual life is lived inside out not outside in.
But our traditions, forms, and practices are not what's at issue here, abundant life is.
Our preparation for life can be our greatest obstacle to actually living.
Center your heart into God and live what you experience in him. It's a growing living process, not a finished work.
Always appreciate life's complexity but live in life's simplicity.
Brokenness complicates everything while wholeness always simplifies to what's life-giving.
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