Monday, February 23, 2015

Spiritual Experience

Spiritual experience is a difficult thing to talk about, mostly because it is after all, spiritual. Spiritual things are not quantifiable in the empirical sense. They cannot  be measured except in the most subjective of terms. I think this is why 'science' will not even study it or acknowledge that there is such a thing as an actual human spirit or a spiritual world. We, as humans, tend to keep things like this in little boxes that we bring out at church or at the yoga class or the latest new age festival during the vernal equinox. We separate our physical existence from our spiritual existence and the result is a grave misunderstanding of what it means to be spiritual and human.

God created us as both body and spirit. It is what makes us unique among all His creations. We are incomplete when our bodies and spirits are separated. It is an unnatural state for a human being. Hence death is an unnatural state for a human being, yet we do die, fragile things that we are. And there are a number of reasons for this phenomenon which goes beyond the scope of this blog post.

Suffice it to say that if death is a separation of our eternal spirit from our bodies, then why is it that we live as though we were already dead, separating our spirituality from our lives in general?

Even Christians, who are fully aware of these things do this and it needs to stop.

We are at our most complete as God's creations when our spirits live in harmony with our bodies and we are at peace with God's spirit that dwells within us also. 

And therein lies both the beauty of spiritual experience and the tyranny of it. Because of the inherited tendency of humans to live outside of the will of God, the body wars with the spirit and if the said same body also has God's spirit within, then the war intensifies. Many Christians collapse exhausted during this war and settle for a less than fabulous existence, falling into a cycle of sin, repentance and forgiveness that stunts spiritual growth and retards spiritual understanding. It's a tragedy and it can be prevented. Even Paul talks a bit about the problems of doing what he does not want to do in Romans 7. It is a pervasive issue. And it becomes more complicated when we begin to believe the lies of our adversary who will always pretend to be on our side until we self destruct.

So the question is....is it possible to live without conflict between body and spirit and with God's spirit. My answer would be yes, but it is not easy and it is not probably something you will be able to do alone. For myself, I am someone, who from all appearances, does not need the help of others. The fact is that as I age, I am finding that God's Spirit is pushing me to seek out others during times of spiritual conflict so that when my end comes, I will have a good finish. Truly, I am becoming obsessed with this idea.

Jesus and Paul said that we need to die to our physical selves with it's desires and emotional reactions and interactions and be lead by God's Spirit. And while this is correct, I think many Christians see this as some sort of emotional experience when it's really not. Christian spirituality is not emotionally based. It is intellectually based. Our salvation and our spiritual well being comes from a knowing and not a feeling. We need to be informed. We need to know. And while winning this war between spirit and flesh is fraught with emotional issues, we need to stay focused on the One that saves. Our spirits need to work in conjunction with God's spirit to quiet the brokenness of our physical bodies and live in harmony with God. It requires our cooperation. We have to participate in our own rehabilitation. It will not be magical....oh, would that not be easy....but I digress.

It also is instructive, helpful and necessary for us to work within a framework of community to achieve this purpose. That community is the church. Within our churches there are thousands of years of spiritual experience, both good and bad, that we can draw on. The support of our brothers and sisters through prayer and personal communion is essential to this process.

This means sharing our spiritual issues with others, and while I would rather have hemorrhoid surgery than share my personal spiritual issues with anyone; if I really want resolution to my spiritual issues, this may be my answer. There are all kinds of reasons not to do this. My mind is calculating all the negatives right now.

But if I want to be able to live in harmony with my God, both in body and in spirit, it would behoove me to seek all the assistance I can get.

After all, we only get one soul. Our bodies will be replaced by a newer, more eternal model. If this one collapses from withdrawal, so be it.

Got to go to work now.