Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Spiritual-ness.

We are both physical and spiritual beings, thus everything we do is spiritual. I do believe this. Everything we do isn't solely the physical-ness of our decisions/ideas/actions/etc ... they have just as real, if not even more real, spiritual consequences and responses. I've been really allowing this to sink into my heart the last few weeks and reading Nouwen's book, "Here and Now" has really just affirmed so much in me. Not only that, but Nouwen has furthered the thought by adding a much more wider, yet deeper perspective on what our spiritual-ness actually is.

It's so profound to actually comprehend the fact that for every situation there is a spiritual situation surrounding it. I'm not just talking in terms of this great spiritual battle between Good and Evil. ( God you are victorious! ) In this post I'm focusing on the profound, yet soft and gentle ways the Holy Spirit generates and cultivates His plans for His people. His ways are so flawless yet at times seem so ... haphazard. I wonder why this seemingly great relationship didn't work out or how this person could so easily walk away from their faith ...etc. . . It's in times as those I wonder ..." Where is the spiritual side to all this?" - more specifically "where is the Holy Spirit in that certain situation? Is He going to show up later down the road? Is He taking a break from this wretched situation?"

While in a fallen world, sin is inevitable and it inevitably spreads leaving behind remnants of it's manifestation. Wretched situations are going to happen. The spiritual side to that is the fact that God does not waste- through the Holy Spirit, any wretched situation calls someone to transformation - and the complete union with God that our humanness is dying for.

" Jesus does not give a political interpretation of the event but a spiritual one: What happened invites you to conversion! This is the deepest meaning of history: a constant invitation calling us to turn our hearts to God and so discover the full meaning of our lives. " - Nouwen

Everything the Holy Spirit does inevitably draws us closer to that place of union with Him, as He first intended before the fall of Adam. This brings hope.

I also loved this in Nouwen's book ::

"When I marched with thousands of black and white Americans from Selma to Montgomery in the summer of 1965, to support the blacks in their struggle for equal rights, Martin Luther King already said that the deeper spiritual meaning of the civil rights movement was that the blacks were calling the whites to conversion...the poor have a mission to the rich, the blacks have a mission to the whites, the handicapped have a mission to the "normal", the gay people have a mission to the straight, the dying have a mission to the living. Those whom the world has made into victims, God has chosen to be bearers of good news. "


I never thought of the Civil Rights Movement this way - and now that I think about it I can also apply this to the women's movements that have taken place over the past century. When looking at the spiritual side of these circumstances, according to Nouwen, they are quite reversed. Without taking this to an unhealthy extreme I can say that the spiritual side to the womens movements werent so much about women becoming independent and fighting the men for equal rights - but rather it was an invitation for men to relinquish entitlements and further see the value in a coexisting union between God, husband and wife. Interesting.


11 comments:

  1. I like the comment that "God does not waste". Sometimes it's hard to see his involvement, but at some point as long as we let him, all things work together for good!

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  2. I can read the passion in your words. Its amazing.
    I am so excited to start reading Here & Now!!!
    Thank you for sharing your heart. Inspiring to say the least.

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  3. Charity :: Indeed!! What an amazing God - that He has the desire to turn the turmoil we create into something profound for His kingdom. SO LEGIT!

    Corinne :: Your words are encouraging to me. thank you. :)

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  4. my friend and i were talking about jesus being born the other day and we were going on and on about how so many details had to fall into place for the stage to be set for jesus to be born. the seeming inconvenience of a census while being super pregnant and there being no room in the inn and the list goes on and on. when i find myself asking the question why i'm reminded of the series of "inconveniences" that led to my savior being born.

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  5. Great thoughts. I think I need to jump over to amazon and actually order that book. It keeps slipping my mind!

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  6. how amazing is our God that He can use the aftermath of something he hates so much, sin, to draw to Him his creation which He longs to have a relationship with. your post also makes me trip about about 1 corinthians 13:12,

    "Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that i know now is partial and incomplete, but then i will know everything completely, just as God knows me completely."

    it's so cool trusting that Gods' plan is absolutely flawless. The definition of perfection. And one day, when we're with Him, we are actually going to GET IT, and see that perfection in all of its beauty.

    Good word cayden :) btw, what is the significance of the title of this blog?

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  7. Wow, what a great post. I think about the same things concerning physical-ness and spiritual-ness, often. I sometimes forget to incorporate that thought that there is spirituality in EVERY action around us. We try to label things as spiritual and forget that the Holy Spirit is working through and in every situation. We are never alone. Can't wait to start reading the book.

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  8. For most of my life, I only thought about God as a "Redeemer" with regard to the salvation of man. He redeems us from sin.

    But the reality your post points to is that he redeems everything! Our lives, the planet, even the selfish actions of others, Christ can take and use for His glory.

    Once you have eyes to see it, it's possible to recognize His redemptive work everywhere...

    No waste indeed.

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  9. Zach :: in the past the words " paint it red " were used when you wanted to remember something or someone that brought a certain significants to your life. ( my favorite artist, Josh Garrels once said :: I "paint it red" to remember the dead who laid down their lives for the truth. ) It resonates with me.

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