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Yearning for the Spiritual – What is Spirituality and Where is it Found?

As we spend some time exploring what it means to be spiritual it is worth our while to ask ourselves the question, what is spirituality and where is it found?

There are plenty of opinions on this but I want to run one past you. “Spirituality in its broad contemporary usage expresses the longing of the human spirit for an experience of ultimate reality, through connecting to the spiritual realm, with a view to achieving inner contentment and a discovery of one’s place in the wider cosmos”

As a Christian I would like to define some of these terms according to what the bible says but I reckon it is a pretty good place for us to start. Over the coming weeks we will see that God’s word (the bible) says heaps about this sort of spirituality but rather than it being all focussed on “us” being at its centre, Christian spirituality has God and his saving work through Jesus at the centre. From God’s point of view, all other realities find their meaning and purpose only with Jesus at the centre. In essence Christian spirituality is all about relating to God his way not ours.

So where do we go to look for it?

This is a great question to ask. Over Christian history people who yearn for Christian spirituality have gone to whole range of places and done a whole range of things in order to pursue it. Without a doubt some of these options have been good but some have been incredibly destructive to their relationship with God. The fact of the matter is that any sort of action that takes us away from the gospel actually undermines Christian spirituality.

And here is the next implication. Any form of ‘spirituality’ that takes you away from God’s word or ignores it or discounts it or explains it away is NOT Christian spirituality. In fact what it does with God’s word becomes a good litmus test to know if something is good or bad for your relationship with God, your spirituality.

So if you are yearning for the Spiritual then the best place to start is by reading the Bible as all of it is about what God is doing in his world and “how we should relate to him”. Want some help to do this – why not ask me and we can start reading together.