Spiritual Maturity
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The Way of the Sacred
The concept of the sacred is fuzzy in this profane world in which we live. Most people think of priests in robes intoning lengthy Latin phrases or perhaps a cathedral comes to mind. The sacred demands a solemn mindset, a long face, and soft voices. None of this is true, of course, being just an imitation of the sacred. The priests and the massive stone churches with their intricate stained glass windows may or may not participate in the sacred. The definition of sacred is ‘connected to God’. Rituals seem connected to God, but often, they are meaningless repetitions of something that mentions God at regular intervals. But the Christian,…
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How to Be Spiritually Minded
To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6 When I read this verse in my daily devotional time, the words spiritually minded popped out at me. I instinctively knew what it meant to carnally minded since I have so much practice at it. But I couldn’t pin down what it meant to be spiritually minded nearly as easily. One of my goals in my blog is to make spiritual concepts more concrete. I do this not for my readers but for myself. How easy it is to sound high minded and cerebral without saying anything coherent, particularly when it comes to…
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How to Make Meaning out of Suffering
Suffering without meaning is the hardest kind of agony to bear. Humans will put themselves through all sorts of torture, endure any kind of hell if only some meaning is attached to it. Parents whose children are killed by random gunmen or drunk drivers begin awareness campaigns. The thought that their children’s brief lives and sudden deaths held no meaning is the cross that is too hard to bear. Others of us begin to tell our stories, justifying the horrors faced by the hopeful thought that perhaps we can prevent even just one from going down the dead end we did. Or we frame our errors with inspirational quotes about…
