Church Corner

I want to talk a bit about Spirituality today – not because I think I know so much about it, but because I think it’s so important, and I spend a lot of time turning the subject over in my mind. I suggest that God created us as a three-part being: Body – the physical part; soul – the mind will and emotions; and spirit – the eternal part of us that transcends time and substance. My experience is that our spirit part is our most intimate part and we feel most deeply and passionately about it. Consequently, I find that discussion around the spiritual stuff holds the greatest possibility for misunderstanding and conflict, and also for the greatest possibility of satisfaction and peace.

Having said that, I plunge head-first into the deep end of the Spirit pool – well, since my profession is a spiritual teacher, I suppose I took that plunge a long time ago.

Folks often tell me they aren’t very religious, but they’re spiritual. I always tell them I’m relieved to hear it. Usually a religious perception is fairly closed in its view of God. In other words, we put God in our little God box and think it’s sufficient. I’d suggest that if I can put God in a small enough box for me to carry around, look in from time to time, understand with some degree of comfort and explain to my satisfaction, then God and my God box are way too small. Yes, I have some degree of comfort around God and the Spirit. No, I don’t think I have as clear an understanding as he’ll give me at that mysterious moment when I become totally eternal in my existence and am no longer temporal.

Hmmmmmm (the sound I make when I’m contemplating).

Now, some further clarification is in order: When I speak of Spirit – with the capital – I speak of the presence of God in the universe and in my personal life. And I make a clear distinction between my spirit – with a small s – and God’s presence in Spirit – with a capitol S. Since I’m an unabashed, unflinching, unapologetic, unrepentant creationist, I’m a firm believer in higher power, creator and God, with supernaturally interventive power, ability and will. In other words, I happen to believe there is God and that God wants to and does interact with me as a human. Please note that I didn’t say that I believe there is “a God” because I perceive that his presence is not as “a God” but as unfathomable God of the universe. Now, for my discussion purposes, just recognize that my perception of the interaction process I have with unfathomable God is as Spirit, and is something I call Spiritual – with a capital S.

So, how it works in my understanding is that Spirit, as the presence of God in my life, interacts with my spirit, as the eternal breath of God in my human form and I can and do experience God in my personal life. Hmmmmm. Interesting. My confidence in God is that he is more interested in interacting with us than we are in interacting with him – not to diminish our desire for Spiritual things, but to recognize the character and heart of God.

That being said, I’m confident that when we have any desire for an experience with the divine, he does and will make himself accessible to us, and he’ll make it impossible for us to miss that he’s calling our name, so to speak. Hmmmmmm. Might I add that he often calls our name even when we’re running fast the other way, with no perceptible interest in him?

I’m not just on a spiritual journey, I’m devoted to a Spiritual journey. Are you Spiritual? Are you seeking the divine? Does God appear on your radar? Excellent! Be patient – you can’t miss him!

Folks often ask me where we’re meeting now that we’ve had the fire and are not meeting in our Cedar Street location until the rebuilding process is done. We gather at 1:30 p.m. Sundays at Grace Lutheran, 525 S. Division here in beautiful Buckley.

Have a wonderful week!

You can e-mail Dale Pratt at dale@cedarcommunitychurch.org.