Being spiritual

The call to spiritual perseverance: "a call not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately, knowing with certainty that God will never be defeated" (Oswald Chambers). 

Many of us can say with conviction that our good friend Ozzy always puts us in our place and keeps us grounded and humble. He calls it like it is, or rather what we are, which is spiritually lazy. 

Being spiritual is so "in" right now -- who doesn't want to be known as someone who is spiritual? For those of us who are Christians, we often shy away from the word "religious" and instead want to be deemed "spiritual." And there is nothing wrong with that. But the reality is that we aren't spiritual just because we say we are or because we want to be. Being "spiritual" can mean many things for different people, but I'm going to dive into why  my I want to be more spiritual.

I would describe myself as self-aware, grounded, and in touch with my emotions. I am very comfortable in my humanness. I know myself -- I know my strengths, my weaknesses, and I can think logically about my emotions and human experiences. Now none of these things are bad -- in fact, I would say that this is a strength of mine. However, these good things can quickly turn into idols, and as Timothy Keller so succinctly points out, an idol is "anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give" (Counterfeit Gods). 

When I become so engaged in who I am as a human, I lose sight of my connectedness with God. I become disillusioned because I don't see myself as spiritual or connected to a spiritual being. There are so many times when I feel far from God and from the person that He made me to be. These things do not happen because God wants me to feel distant from Him; instead, this disconnect and distance is due to my lack of spiritual discipline and perseverance. We need to actively pursue Him every day, in the small, mundane details of everyday life, in conversations with other people, in our actions, in our thoughts, in our words, and in our alone time with Him. 

Like Oswald Chambers says, we can't just be lazy and do nothing, but instead we have to work deliberately in order to be spiritually connected to the highest Spiritual Being. The word "work" can be discouraging, as it might provoke worries of burden and fatigue. But this work is holy work and as Jesus promises us, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30). So that's one of my goals this Lenten season: to become more spiritually connected with God -- not merely to say that I'm "spiritual" but to truly be one with the holiest and highest Spirit of all.