Spiritual Thrill Seeking
I realize that the title itself might leave you with a bit of a disconnect. After all, it is difficult to compare spirituality with paragliding, base jumping, swimming with sharks or any other adrenaline junkie, x-games type pursuits. I look at these pursuits and can see how others might have some fun with it; and for the most part I realize that that sort of thing is generally not for me. However, over the weekend I had the good fortune to watch paragliders as I stood on the cliffs at Pacifica, CA, just south of San Francisco, and while I am not an adrenaline junkie, I must admit that there was something about watching others do it that was quite compelling. It looked so wonderfully peaceful. The people who were gliding on the currents above my head looked so happy and so free and I wondered what it would be like to be in their place. I know a few thrill seekers in my life and while I might not jump out of a plane with them, there is something about that free spirited, on-the-edge lifestyle that can be instructive for our spiritual pursuits.
It becomes so easy for us to get rooted into a very narrow routine of spirituality and experience with God. Most of us tend to be creatures of habit. We know what we like and we like what we know. We can easily become comfortable, then complacent and then largely unresponsive to new opportunities to experience God outside of our narrowly defined spirituality. In the process of this narrowing it is not just we who get narrowed, but in our mind, we begin to narrow and limit God. We lose the sense of the mystery, power and omnipotence of God. We lose the sense of the promise that God’s creative activity didn’t end with the sixth day. God continues to create, to recreate and to make all things new. God’s presence in our life, in the life of the church and in the world at large is a dynamic presence. This dynamic presence, when we allow it to happen (remember God seeks out our partnership on our own life), can and does continually shape our life, our experience, our understanding and our practice of Christ’s ministry in the world.
Growing in grace and our experience of God’s work in our life requires an ongoing spiritual awareness. Through prayer we attune our heart to God’s work. Through worship we continue to invest ourselves in God’s work in our life. Through study our understanding of how God has worked in the lives of our brothers and sisters is expanded. Through all of these, our experience of God grows and our eyes are opened and we see God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – in ever deepening and broadening ways. This also means learning different ways to pray. It means learning how brothers and sisters in different traditions and at different times have prayed and deepened their experience of God. This also means seeking out powerful new ways to experience and remember our Baptism and our invitation to Christ's table in communion. It means actively participating in an ongoing and deeper quest to know God (as Father, Son and Holy Spirit) more completely. When we engage in this pursuit our faith then becomes more deeply connected, in a personal way to the risen Christ in our midst. Rather than having faith focused simply on an idea, theological concept, thought or in a long ago memory, our faith is personal, rather it is in a person (Jesus). In this deepening relationship with the risen Christ in our midst, we find that our faith is not stale, but it is animated by the very breathe of God.
So, “spiritual thrill seeking?” Why not when we are willing to cast off the comfort of the familiar we will find God in some of the most exciting, challenging and unexpected places in our life. Open up, open your eyes, you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find.
I realize that the title itself might leave you with a bit of a disconnect. After all, it is difficult to compare spirituality with paragliding, base jumping, swimming with sharks or any other adrenaline junkie, x-games type pursuits. I look at these pursuits and can see how others might have some fun with it; and for the most part I realize that that sort of thing is generally not for me. However, over the weekend I had the good fortune to watch paragliders as I stood on the cliffs at Pacifica, CA, just south of San Francisco, and while I am not an adrenaline junkie, I must admit that there was something about watching others do it that was quite compelling. It looked so wonderfully peaceful. The people who were gliding on the currents above my head looked so happy and so free and I wondered what it would be like to be in their place. I know a few thrill seekers in my life and while I might not jump out of a plane with them, there is something about that free spirited, on-the-edge lifestyle that can be instructive for our spiritual pursuits.
It becomes so easy for us to get rooted into a very narrow routine of spirituality and experience with God. Most of us tend to be creatures of habit. We know what we like and we like what we know. We can easily become comfortable, then complacent and then largely unresponsive to new opportunities to experience God outside of our narrowly defined spirituality. In the process of this narrowing it is not just we who get narrowed, but in our mind, we begin to narrow and limit God. We lose the sense of the mystery, power and omnipotence of God. We lose the sense of the promise that God’s creative activity didn’t end with the sixth day. God continues to create, to recreate and to make all things new. God’s presence in our life, in the life of the church and in the world at large is a dynamic presence. This dynamic presence, when we allow it to happen (remember God seeks out our partnership on our own life), can and does continually shape our life, our experience, our understanding and our practice of Christ’s ministry in the world.
Growing in grace and our experience of God’s work in our life requires an ongoing spiritual awareness. Through prayer we attune our heart to God’s work. Through worship we continue to invest ourselves in God’s work in our life. Through study our understanding of how God has worked in the lives of our brothers and sisters is expanded. Through all of these, our experience of God grows and our eyes are opened and we see God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – in ever deepening and broadening ways. This also means learning different ways to pray. It means learning how brothers and sisters in different traditions and at different times have prayed and deepened their experience of God. This also means seeking out powerful new ways to experience and remember our Baptism and our invitation to Christ's table in communion. It means actively participating in an ongoing and deeper quest to know God (as Father, Son and Holy Spirit) more completely. When we engage in this pursuit our faith then becomes more deeply connected, in a personal way to the risen Christ in our midst. Rather than having faith focused simply on an idea, theological concept, thought or in a long ago memory, our faith is personal, rather it is in a person (Jesus). In this deepening relationship with the risen Christ in our midst, we find that our faith is not stale, but it is animated by the very breathe of God.
So, “spiritual thrill seeking?” Why not when we are willing to cast off the comfort of the familiar we will find God in some of the most exciting, challenging and unexpected places in our life. Open up, open your eyes, you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find.
No comments:
Post a Comment