Spirituality for All the Wrong Reasons

What is the most misunderstood aspect of spirituality? That it's a kind of specialized form of being a Christian, that you have to have some kind of in. It's elitist. Many people are attracted to it for the wrong reasons. Others are put off by it: I'm not spiritual. I like to go to football games or parties or pursue my career. In fact, I try to avoid the word.

Many people assume that spirituality is about becoming emotionally intimate with God. That's a naïve view of spirituality. What we're talking about is the Christian life. It's following Jesus. Spirituality is no different from what we've been doing for two thousand years just by going to church and receiving the sacraments, being baptized, learning to pray, and reading Scriptures rightly. It's just ordinary stuff.

This promise of intimacy is both right and wrong. There is an intimacy with God, but it's like any other intimacy; it's part of the fabric of your life. In marriage you don't feel intimate most of the time. Nor with a friend. Intimacy isn't primarily a mystical emotion. It's a way of life, a life of openness, honesty, a certain transparency.

I have an intimacy with Jesus that is much like that with my wife.

My wife and I sit in the same room, do things, and occassionally talk to each other as we are reading or watching TV. I don't kneel down and flail myself on the floor calling out her name.

With Jesus, I go about my daily life and on occasion, find myself tempted to do something I know I should not. Cuss at a driver that cut me off, take a nice beer mug from the hotel and put it in my suitcase, or some other such thing that is not murder, but wrong. When this happens, I look over at Jesus in my mind and see Him looking back at me with "that look". I smile at the driver, or put the beer mug back on the dresser and thank Him for helping me to avoid falling into sin.

Sometimes, if something really heavy is on my heart, I will get very close and very intimate. I have a friend who is dying of cancer. I come close to Jesus at moments and pray for my friend. I pray that he is also close to Jesus.

Like the author says though, these times are not typically public and offered as a demonstration.

This is a remarkable article. My own struggles make much more sense. Being manipulated into anything is always a bad idea. We can't expect anyone to buy the true Gospel if we are trying to "sell" it. I "bought" what Rev. Peterson was talking about. And I've struggled with resentment and "hey, this wasn't part of the deal"! thinking ever since.

The key quote, IMHO:

I think relevance is a crock. I don't think people care a whole lot about what kind of music you have or how you shape the service. They want a place where God is taken seriously, where they're taken seriously, where there is no manipulation of their emotions or their consumer needs.

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