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Somewhere deep in the woods, the paths of religion and spirituality cross-sect near an old oak tree. Well, perhaps not an oak tree, but I like the poetic music…
Normally, the pursuit of God and the acquisition of God are quite divergent paths. Much of what we choose to believe and follow in our worship is more cultural and traditional than it is actually heavenly or practical.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that as long as we don’t pass it off as some sort of universal edict from the Almighty Creator. But I do believe that somewhere along the line, spirit and truth need to merge into the simplicity of hope which energizes our lifestyle and gives thrust to our efforts.
I think that crossroad occurs when we consider the words from the Lord’s Prayer: “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is where spirit and truth unite to form a true faith for those who dare to believe.
Bluntly, there is nothing that is truly spiritual that isn’t also truthful. And there is nothing that is everlasting in truth that isn’t spiritual. So over the years, many things have been believed by religion which had to be cast aside when revelation of knowledge exposed that these contentions were erroneous–or sometimes completely flawed.
For instance, in our own country, slavery was condoned, promoted and authenticated in the scriptures by religion, which misused and misinterpreted ideas to “buy in” to the complexion of the day. Of course–not by everybody. There were those who were spiritual who understood that slavery was eternally a false institution and therefore had no spirit of God in it. They were right.
So my particular belief system is rather childlike. If I discover something that is true, I also know it’s spiritual. And if I uncover something that is truly spiritual, it’s not difficult to align it with the truth. So where do we begin? What is the ultimate crossroad between religion and spirituality, where we decide to build our personal church and kneel to worship?
I have three of them–the three “stones” I use as a foundation for my faith in God:
1. NoOne is better than anyone else. I won’t go near any organization, political party or denomination that plays around with this principle or even debates whether there might be exceptions to it. it is non negotiable.
2. Free will is sacred. If you are still living in a theology which insists that “God has a wonderful plan for your life,” you are going to spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for God, who is on the other side of the room, waiting for you. No earthly mother or father would make a plan for their children and dangle it in front of them as a condition of receiving approval and love. Why do you think God would do that? The day you understand that God has a wonderful life for your plan, you will start moving out on your talents and succeeding, instead of waiting for Divine inspiration–which has already arrived.
3. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. You’ve got to be careful with this one–many religious organizations insist they believe it, until you happen to do something they disagree with, and then you find yourself suddenly shunned or separated. This means that even the sinful nature that may come across our paths is not able to separate the sinner from the mercy and tenderness of his heavenly Father. Don’t try it. When you are the one to tell one of God’s children that he or she is not part of the family because of their predilections or weaknesses, you will not only incur the frustration of the person you have shut out, but will also find yourself on the wrong end of discipline coming from your heavenly Father.
There you go. Those three ideas are enough to maintain an exciting, vibrant, spiritual, intellectual, romantic and jubilant life. You can feel free to toy with other traditions or suggestions, but be fully aware that if you decide to mess with what God has already put in place, you will end up on the wrong side of history.
Where religion and spirituality meet is called spirit and truth.
It is where we pursue God’s will being done here on earth as it is in heaven, and we realize that if it can’t be done here on earth, then we have to question whether it was God’s idea in the first place.
Too simple? Maybe so. But complication is when we lose our true belief and sacrifice it to error.
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