Spirituality: Part Two

Last time we discussed how Spirituality was what happens when teaching meets experience, and that offers a huge variety. My experiences will definitely be different from yours, and yours from the next person. And yet so often we try understand spirituality as a linear progression. We say that so-and-so is a spiritual person, but we sometimes miss the great variety of spirituality that out there.
Maybe a better question to ask, rather than what is spirituality, is what are spiritualities?

I've met people who are wonderfully patient with the follies of others, but lack the wisdom to listen to advice. I've met people who have a wonderful spirit of discernment but struggle with forgiveness. The list goes on. And yet we still think of spirituality as a motorway, that some people are just further ahead than we are. Or, more dangerously, that we are more spiritual than others.

I've taken in recent years to rethinking this. Stop thinking of spirituality as a motorway and start thinking of it more as a cul de sac. Once you've had a spiritual awakening, and most everyone has, there's not really anywhere else to go forward. Instead we start to grow sideways, and deeper.

Think of each house in this cul de sac as a different type of spirituality. The nice lady at number 50 might be a great listener and can teach us a lot about being attentive to the needs of others, or mercy in spiritual terms. She also makes great cakes so some of us might like stopping there for a while. Old Mr Jones at number 73 drones on and on about all his woes and how he wants us to do right for him, or social justice. He doesn't have great cake so maybe we don't stay there as much. Then in number 26 we've got the very smart, incredibly attractive, silver fox pastor who is ever so charming and writes insightful pieces on spirituality. Unfortunately no one ever visits him so he just sits in his library learning stuff and preparing articles for magazines. Please visit me some time.

As we journey and settle with our various neighbours in our spiritual cul de sac, we might find ourselves displaying a little more of their character. The frequent visitor to the prayerful house will find themselves enjoying prayer that much more. Those who spend time with the neighbour with a spirit of discipleship will find a deeper appreciation of spending time in learning and challenging themselves with new ideas.

Our spiritual neighbours each enrich our lives in different ways. While it would be nice to say that someone is 'spiritual', we need ask in which way are they spiritual. And that's when we can begin to look at ourselves.

We'll soon be looking at ourselves an awful let. If you're a handsome fellow like myself then obviously this won't be an issue, indeed it will be a pleasure. But we don't always like what we see in the mirror, so next time we'll start to look at those grey hairs or our double chin that maybe we'd cover with a bit of make-up. So please don't judge yourself less spiritual than others, you may be the neighbour they need to spend time with to deepen a part of themselves that might be lacking.