Is there a difference in living a spiritual life – and the life you are living?
What exactly is a spiritual life? If you were to ask 10 people, you can expect
you’d get 10 different answers.
The Bible calls for us to lead lives that make a difference and that can only be
done if we know who we are – and who we should be. The French have a term
Raison D’etre (Ray zon de’tre) – it means to give a reason for your existence – in other words to give a reason for living.
1 Cor 10:31 says it this way – “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” – that says in our regular daily activities we are to lead a spiritual life.
When we feel like our lives are like an overstuffed suitcase – you know that one you have to mash (or even sit on) to get it closed – it is difficult to consciously live a life that is radiantly spiritual. We are keenly aware of being behind schedule – or having that nagging feeling of things we need to do - but just don’t have time to do them. We know that living a spiritual life includes getting around to speak to everyone, writing letters, making visits – but we are soooooo busy.
Matt 6:31-33
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Our worries motivate us to try to squeeze more into our days.
Notice Jesus does not say we shouldn’t be busy – He doesn’t expect us to pull away from events, activities and people – what He does ask is that we focus on our anchor points – our priorities. A spiritual life does require effort – Mark 10:23-24.
23 Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!
Television dictates for most people what our philosophy of life should be – think about it – it’s true – Let me illustrate – when you were young children you didn’t know whether or not you were from a poor family or a rich one. We began to learn that by comparing our way of living with what we saw in other families. We didn’t know whether our clothes were out-of-date until someone pointed it out – and most of the time in some cruel way. TV taught us quickly whether we were “acceptable” or not.
A person truly seeking to live a spiritual life in this busy world needs to reflect on what Jesus meant when He said in Matt 6:6 “Go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in that secret place”
Your private room is inward – it is the place where you are not talking to others – not trying to read – you don’t have the TV on or the radio blaring in the car. When we are removed from our outer distractions – it’s just you and God. Scary isn’t it? We sometimes use those distractions to shield ourselves – some of us can only tolerate 5 minutes a day – it might be a rare thing to work up to an hour – the amount of time will vary – But it is from that private place we renew just who we are and why we are commanded to live a spiritual life.
