Understanding the Spiritual Life: More Than Just Religion

The word "spiritual" can feel vague and overused, but it's actually a crucial concept for understanding who we are as human beings. We are spiritual beings because we're created in God's image, and God is spirit. This means spirituality touches the very core of our existence.

What Does It Mean to Be Spiritual?

The Interior Landscape

Spirituality relates to our essential being - the life of our spirit or soul. Every person has an interior world filled with thoughts, emotions, hopes, and expectations. This inner landscape is shaped by our experiences and contains the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and how the world works.

This interior life becomes the foundation for our desires and decisions. It's not just a religious concept - it's fundamentally human.

The Body Matters Too

However, any understanding of spirituality that ignores our physical nature falls short. We're not just souls trapped in bodies; our bodies are central to who we are. Through our physical senses, we experience and relate to the world, to others, and even to God.

True spiritual life must incorporate our embodied existence. We can't separate the spiritual from the physical because they're interconnected parts of our humanity.

How Does Spirituality Connect to God's Presence?

God, as spirit, is present everywhere - there's no place or human experience where God isn't present. As humans, we're limited to being bodily present in one place at a time. The spiritual life encompasses all the ways our lives intersect with God's Spirit, both in our inner world and in the physical world around us.

What's the Difference Between Spiritual and Religious?

Religion and Spirituality Work Together

Religion and spirituality aren't the same thing, but they're deeply connected - like fire and heat. Religion contains and gives life to spiritual growth, while spiritual life is formed and expressed through religious practices.

Practices Support Growth

Certain religious practices can foster spiritual growth, but spiritual growth isn't about becoming better at those practices. For example:

 

• Participating in a religious community is nearly essential for spiritual growth, but growth goes deeper than just becoming more attached to that community

• Reading and meditating on scripture can lead to divine encounters, but no amount of time with scripture guarantees spiritual growth

 

What Does Spiritual Growth Look Like?

Maturing in God's Image

Spiritual growth is the experience of maturing in our essential humanity. Since we're made in God's image, God's work with us involves helping us grow more fully into that image.

We're born naturally self-centered, focused on survival and self-protection. But as we grow spiritually, we begin to understand that we're not the only beings in the universe and that our lives impact others.

Becoming More Loving

As we become more spiritual, we become more loving. Our approach to ourselves, the world, and God becomes increasingly marked by humble, other-centered, compassionate, and radically inclusive love.

How Can We Nurture Spiritual Growth?

The Garden Metaphor

The best way to understand spiritual growth is through the metaphor of a garden. Our inner life - what we often call the heart - is like soil. The circumstances of our lives, our choices, and our relationships are like plants in this garden.

What we plant bears fruit in who we become. The fruit of spiritual growth includes character qualities like love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, and self-control.

Tending the Soil

Just like a gardener can't force plants to grow, we can't force spiritual growth. Growth happens naturally - it's the very nature of living things. However, we can tend the soil of our hearts by:

 

• Fertilizing and watering our spiritual lives

• Removing weeds that hinder growth

• Protecting ourselves from harmful influences

 

These practices don't earn growth or make it happen through some kind of transaction. Instead, spiritual growth comes through our consent to and participation with the Spirit's work in us and around us.

How Does Spiritual Growth Impact the World?

Ripple Effects

As we mature in our inner lives, what grows in us ripples out into the world around us. We contribute to forming communities that reflect spiritual qualities like love, peace, and gentleness.

Building God's Kingdom

In this way, the spiritual life isn't just about personal development. It's simultaneously about how we live in relationships and what kind of world we're helping to build. We become participants in God's good and beautiful work in the world.

Life Application

This week, take an honest look at the "garden" of your heart. What have you been planting through your choices, relationships, and daily practices? Are you tending the soil of your inner life in ways that promote spiritual growth?

Consider implementing one simple practice that helps you participate with God's Spirit - whether that's setting aside time for reflection, engaging more deeply with your faith community, or choosing to respond with love in a difficult relationship.

Ask yourself these questions:

 

• What "weeds" in my life might be hindering spiritual growth?

• How can I better tend the soil of my heart this week?

• In what ways is my spiritual growth (or lack thereof) impacting those around me?

• How am I participating in building the kind of world that reflects God's love and peace?

 

Remember, spiritual growth isn't about perfecting religious practices or earning God's favor. It's about consenting to God's work in your life and allowing that transformation to flow out into your relationships and community.