Defrazzle Your Spirituality
Life, for most of us, feels like a movie we've arrived to forty minutes late.
Sure, good things happen, sometimes beautiful things.
But tragic things happen too. What does it mean?
We find ourselves in the middle of a story that is sometimes wonderful, sometimes awful,
usually a confusing mixture of both, and we haven't a clue how to make sense of it all.
No wonder we keep losing heart.
We need to know the rest of the story.
For when we were born, we were born into the midst of a great story begun before the dawn of time. A story of adventure, of risk and loss, heroism…and betrayal. A story we here good is warring against evil, danger lurks around every corner, and glorious deeds wait to be done. Think of all those stories you've ever loved - there's a reason they stirred your heart. They've been trying to tell you about the true Epic ever since you were young.
There IS a larger story.
And you have a role to play
~John Eldredge - Epic
Spirituality is a major “buzz word' these days. On the one hand, I am personally delighted that people are taking time to consider spirituality. While this website is not a “Spiritual” website in that sense, my own spiritual journey has been a key factor to my survival as a mom, and my growth as a human being. For this reason I thought I'd put out some ideas on this topic.
What disturbs me with modern spirituality is that everyone is now a great guru. Publish a book, and you're an expert. Unfortunately, we have people developing a whole mode of spirituality from a single event or experience. This is then a spirituality that is totally subjective.
Let's look at some items that I see are critical when I'm looking at my own spiritual path.
- Most forms of spirituality deal with some kind of “eternal perspective”. If I'm going to base my eternity on something, I want that something to be true. Eternity is a long time to be making up for a mistake. I want my faith to be based on more than someone else's subjective experience. I want there to be historical evidence, archaeological evidence, as well as experiential evidence. I need something strong to stand on when things get tough.
- Whether we believe it or not, there are absolute truths. We cannot create our own realities. Here's a wonderful Young Adult book that deals with this issue in the form of a great story: Nightmare Academy (The Veritas Project)
- I need to know that whatever form of spirituality I'm following it is one that promotes positive growth - even with sacrifice and struggle - and one that promotes the same growth in others.
- I need a form of spirituality that encourages life to be lived to the full, and which acknowledges my own personality, making me more of the best that I am, not burying myself deep in my psyche, crushing those very parts of me that make me unique.
- I want to be deeply valued by the faith I follow, not forced into a "cookie cutter" mold of what is acceptable.
- My spirituality must be available to all, not based on some “elitist” hierarchy where only those in the highest echelons can achieve greatness. I need to know that the weak, the lowly, the sick, the broken, the handicapped, the mentally challenged, the outcast, and the “dire sinners” are all able to receive hope and healing.
- I need to know that my spirituality can cross cultural barriers and that it's totally inclusive.
- I need to know that what this world has to offer is not the best there is.
There are a few other things that are key and critical for me:
- I need to know that my spirituality has a place for the evil in this world that makes sense. Not that it approves of it and encourages it, but I don't want a belief system that ignores it. I want my beliefs to help me make sense of the good, the bad, and the ugly in this world.
- I need my spirituality to make sense of suffering.
- I need to know what to do with the guilt I feel over the wrong things I've done, other than ignore it.
- I want my faith to make sense in the world I live in every day, not force me into some other realm, cut off from society.
For these reasons, and after much study and consideration, I have chosen to follow the Christian form of Spirituality. Many people have been permanently scarred - or painfully bored - by their childhood experiences of this faith, but I would like to encourage you to not base your faith on people - who fail, mess up, and are imperfect - but on the God they say believe in.
If you're new to Christianity, or if you've been badly burned by it in the past, or if there is a remnant spark there that needs to be fanned into life, or if you simply want to discover what my faith is REALLY about, let me recommend two books (best read in this order):
- Epic: The Story God Is Telling and the Role That Is Yours to Play
And
I believe that if you read these two books with an open mind you will be so positively transformed and empowered that you will never see life the same again. You will be filled with hope and understanding, and your life will suddenly make much more sense.
I'd love to carry on a dialogue with you on this subject. Please feel free to contact me, and let's chat!
Darlene
