Issue #5 -- 09/14/08
When I was a kid I had this thing about foods on my plate touching each other. My peas could never ever touch my mashed potatoes, my mashed potatoes could never touch my meatloaf and so on…if they ever did touch I would isolate the two offending particles of food, and not eat them. It wasn’t until years later did I realize that even if the two foods had touched that they were still okay to eat, and in most cases just as, if not more so, delicious. A lot of times we try to compartmentalize our lives in much the same way. We separate everything in our lives into neat little categories so they are easier to deal with. We try to do this with God as well. Have you ever heard the term “spiritual life”? The term “spiritual life” gets tossed around a lot in Christian circles, as if it’s just another compartment in our lives. But did you know that there is no Hebrew term for spiritual? If you were to ask Jesus, “Hey Jesus how’s your spiritual life?” he would have no idea what you are talking about. You see because to label one area of your life “spiritual” is to label other areas of your life “not spiritual.” It’s an idea that is absolutely foreign to the bible.
Everything is spiritual, yet we have a tendency to compartmentalize our lives, we act like our spiritual life and our everyday life are two separate things when they are really the same thing. Everything we do is spiritual; eating, drinking, having a conversation with our neighbor, taking the kids to school, going to work, talking about the big game…all of it is spiritual. Why? Because we’re human, we’re alive, and we are given by God a body AND a spirit, but also because God is everywhere, he is omnipresent. We don't always see Him, we can ignore Him, but He's there, He's everywhere. This first Christians latched onto the idea: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Col. 3:17
We compartmentalize our lives because that's what is easy for us, that is how we understand life best sometimes, but that is not the reality of it at all. The reality of life is that every act is a spiritual act…and the truly everything is spiritual. If you think about this and really think about it…how does it make you feel? Is there anything you should be doing differently in your life?
Everything is spiritual, yet we have a tendency to compartmentalize our lives, we act like our spiritual life and our everyday life are two separate things when they are really the same thing. Everything we do is spiritual; eating, drinking, having a conversation with our neighbor, taking the kids to school, going to work, talking about the big game…all of it is spiritual. Why? Because we’re human, we’re alive, and we are given by God a body AND a spirit, but also because God is everywhere, he is omnipresent. We don't always see Him, we can ignore Him, but He's there, He's everywhere. This first Christians latched onto the idea: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Col. 3:17
We compartmentalize our lives because that's what is easy for us, that is how we understand life best sometimes, but that is not the reality of it at all. The reality of life is that every act is a spiritual act…and the truly everything is spiritual. If you think about this and really think about it…how does it make you feel? Is there anything you should be doing differently in your life?
John “You won’t hear me use the term spiritual life” Downey
No comments:
Post a Comment