Religion versus Spirituality or The Evidence of True Spirituality

Ever have a “Mountain Top” experience?

“What’s a ‘Mountain Top’ experience,” you ask.

It may vary according to specific individuals.  But there is a common thread.  Some may describe such an experience as spiritual re-empowerment or re-invigoration, or as spiritual enlightenment, a dazzling moment of inner spiritual awareness.  Others may describe it as an unusual enabling to suddenly hear and obey God, to follow and do, according to God’s leading.   Still, others may experience it as comforting reassurance that God is present in one’s life; a reminder of God’s enduring love for one’s person, a needed sense of God’s unconditional love re-affirmed.  And for others it may be a renewed sense of vision and purpose, an eye-opening jolt of clarity as to life’s direction and calling.  And others may experience it as a strengthening of faith, or as an expansion of hope, and still others may experience it as a call to repentance and/or self-sacrifice.  We could go on.

It’s a kind of spiritual high; personal contact with the Divine; a touch of God upon one’s life, an eye-opener to the things of the Spirit, a transformation of the heart, a spark of light upon one’s soul.  It can be described as a moment of spiritual clarity, a re-centering of SELF, leading to an acute refocus toward God’s presence, power, and purpose for one’s life.  It is transformative in its impact, often refreshing and renewing, and purifying and cleansing to one’s inner being.

Many eagerly seek for such an experience from God, finding it only after much travail of heart and earnest prayer.  The irony is that some have had such an experience without ever having sought after it.  For them it just happened, unsolicited, unsought for, and even uninvited; but, boom!  There it was.  They were hit.

A Mountain Top experience can also be likened to a computer’s reset button.  When a computer gets overloaded and too many programs are up and running and too many commands are in its command-center queue, the computer freezes and there’s nothing left to do but hit the reset button.  Start Fresh!  Sometimes we need a Life-Reset button.  A Mountain Top experience can be just the thing.

Interestingly enough, of those who have testified to having had such an experience, in the history of humanity, not all would claim that they were the religious type.  Some would even claim to have been anti-religious.  Still, they would not deny the experience.

So, what is the evidence that such an experience is real and genuine?

I would submit to you that it is not in whether or not the person immediately afterwards joined this or that church or became a “religious” convert to this or that denomination, or submitted to this or that religious institution.  No, I submit to you that the evidence is in whether or not the person became more human in the best sense of the term.  That is, did the person become more kind and compassionate, more merciful and gracious, more just and righteous, and more loving.  Or, being a Christian, I’d put it this way: did the person become more like Christ?

There is a difference between becoming more spiritual as opposed to becoming more religious.  It’s fairly easy to define what we mean by “religious.”  What is more difficult to define or describe is what it means to be spiritual.  So what is the real evidence of a spirit-driven life, that is, a God centered life or a holy life?

One could answer by saying that it is when the presence of God is obvious, where the work of God is evident and the hand of God upon that person’s life is certain.  But that still begs the question.  What precisely is that evidence of God’s hand upon that person’s life and God’s work in that person’s heart? 

Is it evidenced in that person’s power, prestige, and honor?  Or is it evidence in the person’s wisdom and knowledge and insight?  Is it evidence in the person’s range of influence and impact in society for good?  Perhaps it is evidence by the person’s good living by engaging in personal self-denial and abstinence from certain indulgences?  Yes, these may be signs, but these do not constitute the real substance and evidence that it is God that is at the center of that person’s life.  So what is?

The Apostle Paul gives us the answer in the 13th chapter of his first letter to the Christians in Corinth.  There he says things like, if I could speak in a multitude of languages, or in the language of heaven, but do not have love, I am nothing but a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  Or, if I had great prophetic powers so as to proclaim God’s mighty Word with great authority, but have not love, I am nothing.  Or, if I understood all of God’s mysteries and had all knowledge, but had not love, I am nothing.

Thus, a holy, spirit-driven life is not demonstrated by the naked show of spirit-power such as the moving of mountains, or the raising of the dead or the healing of the sick in and of itself.  Rather, a true demonstration of ongoing spiritual connectedness with God, God centeredness, or spiritual enlightenment, is living a life that is responsive with love. 

Today we are constantly being called upon to takes sides out of anger and disgust.  We are to villainize, condemn, and ostracize anyone that is not with us.   We are to be wrathful and hateful of the opposing side, whatever the cause may be.  People are drawing lines, staking out their territory and their positions.  We are to classify and categorize: these are the in’s and those are the outs.  These are for us, those are against us.  They are our enemies.  In short, there is little place for compassion and mercy, no offering of grace, and no room for redemptive love.

Yet, in fact, the greatest evidence of the work of the Spirit of God within a person’s life is whether or not that person is becoming more and more like Jesus Christ, more Christ like.  And what does it mean to be like Christ?  It means being a person that is full of loving kindness and merciful compassion, ready to offer redeeming grace toward anyone, even one’s enemies.

So, yes.  There is a great difference between religion and spirituality.  But true spirituality is not what we think it is, unless it is rooted and empowered by God’s love and grace.

Racism and Police, and the “Yes, But”

There’s always a “yes…, but.”  It’s the temptation to defend, to counter, to argue the point, and to inevitably push back and “take sides.”

It may simply be a knee-jerk reaction, an instinctive drive to defend the status quo as one knows it, or a need to protect one’s assumptions about reality and what one believes to be true.  It may be a defense mechanism, a self-protective need to defend one’s turf to preserve one’s place where one’s rights and privileges are perceived as being threatened.

Whatever the emotional or psychological or rational reason, it is a refusal to hear and listen.  It is a disinclination to empathize with.  And its effect is to further divide rather than unify.

So, for example, must we choose between Police Officers and African Americans?  Are there sides to this issue?  If we listen to and begin to understand and sympathize with the complaints made by the “Black Lives Matter” movement, does it mean that we are de-facto anti-police?  If we say that we generally respect and support our law enforcement officers, must we automatically be deemed as racist and anti-black?  Certainly not!

But, again, the tendency is to take sides, to push back, pitting one side against the other, which doesn’t help much.

As we grieve together in behalf of those police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty last week in Dallas, and as we offer our condolences and affirm our moral support of police officers and their families across this nation, if we also choose not to lose sight of the grievances that the Black Lives Matter movement has stated, please note that we are NOT minimizing the value and significance of our police officers.

In short, YES!  Black lives matter.  And YES!  Police and other Law Enforcement Officers matter.  It is not either/or.  It is BOTH/AND!

Calls for harsher laws or a change of laws or a new batch of laws to restrict or deter bad behavior (on either side) will not in-and-of-itself make things better.  Pivoting one side against the other by accentuating individual’s negative behavior from one group over against the individual’s appalling behavior from the other group will not diminish the anger or rage that boils underneath the surface in either group.

What is lacking is a listening, sympathizing, empathic ear.  The two groups are not hearing each other.  There is the tendency to choose sides rather than to choose mutual respect and consideration.  That being said, the side which generally exercises greater power and authority (legal, social, and otherwise) over the other, has a greater obligation to listen more carefully to the complaints of the weaker side, the side with less power and authority.  And so, there is a reason why the Black Lives Matter movement exists in the first place.  Is that reason being respected, i.e., being truly heard?

They’ve got to be heard.  We, non-blacks, must listen and seek to understand what it is they have been trying to tell us.  The Black Lives Matter movement was not created in a vacuum.  It has context.  It has substance, rationale, and justified cause.  Yet, it would seem that, perhaps until now, the message has fallen on deaf ears.  But now the danger is that our deaf ears may become tuned-out ears, resistant ears, ears which refuse to listen out of a spirit of defensiveness and self-protectiveness.

Consider that, generally speaking, Whites do not fear for their lives and do not worry about whether or not they will be treated with respect or will be favored by a legal, just, and moral system when pulled over by a police officer.  Blacks do worry.  Blacks do wonder whether or not they’ll be treated justly, and all too often do fear for their lives when pulled over by a police officer—even when they know they’re innocent of any overt wrongdoing!  It is an experience only Blacks can relate to, that Whites just do not get.  And, until Whites ‘get-it’, Blacks will continue to be frustrated, angry, and defensive.  From the Black perspective, their very lives are at stake.  This is why the whole movement is called BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Listening is the first step toward respect and empathy.  And so, as a first step, we need to simply hear their experience as truth.  We must give them that much.  That is, we need to listen until we “get it.”  We non-blacks need to get what their saying so as to be able to empathize and mirror-back to them what they have been telling us.  They must know that they are being heard.  Have we heard?  Do we “get-it”?

A good sign that we have finally stopped to listen and have actually begun to hear in such a way that we really get-it, is when we no longer respond with a “yes, but…!” to what has been said.

To Be a Patriot

To be a patriot is to love and be devoted to one’s country.  There are special days in the year when the show of one’s patriotic spirit is encouraged—the 4th of July being one, not to mention Flag Day, Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, or Patriot’s Day (the third Monday of April in the States of Main and Massachusetts). 

But what is a true patriot?  We’ve all heard the saying, perhaps said it ourselves: “My country, love it or leave it!”  Or, “Right or wrong, I stand behind her!”  What can be more patriotic than that? Well, I suppose nothing…, unless.

Unless what?  Unless one’s patriotism rejects blind patriotism and expects integrity and accountability of its country, and is willing to make the necessary sacrifices to keep one’s country true to its values and principles.

Ever notice how right and wrong or good and bad can sometimes be turned upside down and twisted around in the name of patriotism?  For example, a whistle blower exposing government lies or abuses of power and authority, governmental overreach, becomes the guilty party and is accused of being unpatriotic, rather than the government officials that were doing the wrong in the first place.

Do you remember how, when anyone that questioned or outright opposed George W. Bush’s choice to preemptively attack Iraq, back in 2003, they were told to sit-down and shut-up and were coldly accused of being blatantly unpatriotic—with, “if you are not with us you are against us” language?

It took a lot of guts and great strength of character with supreme clarity of vision and insight, to stand-up to all the other so-called true patriots that were clamoring for taking the war into Iraq.  Yet, with all our regrets now, about the war in Iraq and its results, what are those so-called true patriots now saying about what it means to be patriotic?

Love for one’s country is good and even necessary, so long as it is not blind or manipulated.  In other words, we are to love our country with our eyes wide open.  In the 1930’s and 40’s, blindly manipulated love for one’s country put Hitler and his Nazi regime into power—something the Germans have regretted ever since.  Do we Americans think ourselves superior enough to be above the reach of political manipulation in the name of patriotism?  If so, we really are in trouble?

So what is the antidote, to guard against blind patriotism or being politically manipulated in the name of patriotism?  I offer the following.

Like individual people, we should hold individual nations, including our own, accountable to the higher authority of justice, goodness, and righteousness.

For one, “Might does not make right.”  The rightness of an action must stand on its own merits.  So, for example, the rightness of a nation’s actions or intended action must be measured by the high standard of moral and ethical principles of justice and righteousness over against shear political backing and will-power and/or official claims to have the power and authority to take such action.

Patriots are to be true to their country.  But there country is also to be true to its people as well.  What does it mean for a nation to be true to its people?  It means that its public officials are to operate with integrity, submitting to the very same laws they claim to uphold by virtue of their office.  It means that government officials, from the highest office to the lowest, are to work with transparency wherever, however, and whenever possible, given the nature of their office.  They are to be and are to remain truly accountable to the public he/she represents.

Thus, when one group begins to accuse another group, or a few individual nay-sayers within its own group, as being un-patriotic, I become wary of the accusers rather than of the accused.  I begin to question the nature of the accusers’ agenda and wonder what they may be hiding, as they slip behind the flag of patriotism so as to avoid authentic scrutiny.  The agenda of a real patriot is always open and transparent, non-manipulative and seeks what is right, good, and just for the nation and its people as a whole.

Congress Continues to Break Down

A “Sit-in” happened in Congress!  Congressional rules ignored!

This is more evidence of the fact that our system is breaking down.

For now, set aside the issue, the why of their action, and look at the means or method toward their end goal: A Congressional “sit-in” in the House of Representatives!  A calculated defiance of congressional rules!  What does this tell us?

It tells us what we already know, that normal healthy congressional procedures, operations, and ways and means are breaking down—have broken down.  It tells us that the system is in need of reparative attention.  Of course, we already knew this.  But what we don’t know, what we can’t foresee, are the inevitable dysfunctional consequences of a broken system that is about to crash.

I don’t want to sound like Chicken Little, but I think this is a bad sign for our country.  The fact that our representative legislative machinery is breaking down should send off alarms.  Sure, it still operates—like a dying battery that wearily cranks ever so slowly and just barely manages to get the car started.  It is not a good sign.

Consider machinery in general.  Mechanically speaking, a well built, well maintained, and well-oiled machine, runs smoothly, almost effortlessly.  It hums, even sings.  It rings true to its purpose.  It operates as it should and accomplishes its task as intended.

But if the machine begins to show signs of wear and tear, e.g., parts get cracked and/or damaged, and no attention is given to necessary repairs, the whole machine is in danger of complete ruin.  Anyone who has lost, what was at face value, a nice car, because of complete engine failure for lack of proper repair and upkeep, knows of what I speak.

When our forefathers constructed our constitutional democratic system, establishing personal rights and privileges and the three branches of government with appropriate checks and balances, their aim was to build a healthy operative working political system.  The system was built to rise above petty power-play and childish grid-lock.  It was a system for the people (by the people, of the people, etc.).  It was a system built to bring balance and respect for individual and community, as well as for State and Federal boundaries.  The operative key word here is balance!

No one party or person or group of people is to have-it-all or is to control-it-all.  There is to be balance, give-and-take, and negotiation toward union—unity without super-imposed forced conformity.  Burdens and losses are to be shared so as to lighten the load upon any one part of the overall national body.  There is to be collective responsibility for national interests as well as personal and community interests.  After tough negotiations and challenging battles of opinion, perspective, and attitude, there is still to be settled cooperation between differing parties and opposing sides for the greater good, for the benefit of most, if not all.

It no longer works that way in today’s context.  This is why we are beginning to see more unusual and unprecedented dramatic performances being done in Congress these days.

Call me Chicken Little, but I believe it forebodes an ill future for our government system as we once knew it.  If we can’t fix this now, we are heading for a future government that our children will regret to have inherited.  It may take a while, but it will come.

Historical perspective: every great empire, in world history, has eventually imploded from within (extreme wealth in the hands of a few, greed, corruption, political maneuvering and power plays, inside fighting, turf battles, etc.) and, having become weakened from within, is eventually conquered from without—its leaders having become too selfishly myopic, wasteful and exploitive, arrogant and power hungry, and “in it for themselves” rather than for the people as a whole, leading to systemic breakdown—be it the Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire, Persian Empire, Roman Empire, or now the American “Empire.”

Wait and see.  Time will tell.  Maybe not in this generation or even the next; nevertheless, history shows that we humans have changed very little.   We forever doom ourselves through our own petty self-destructive behavior.

Orlando Shooting: Faith Community Guilty?

They’ve got a point.  The Orlando shooting was an act of terror, but it was also a hate crime against the LGBT community—a hatred that is often bolstered by the religious community.  How so?

I can’t speak for other major religions such as Islam or Judaism or Hinduism, but I can speak for Christianity and am able to say that it is wrong and categorically anti-Christ-like for any Christian to hate or even condemn individuals and members of the LGBT community (remember Jesus’ response to the woman caught in adultery when she was about to be stoned to death for her sin!  See the Gospel according to John 8:1-11).

Christians disagree as to weather or not the LGBT lifestyle should be called sin and if so to what degree.  In fact, many Christian churches and denominations are currently experiencing deeply divisive conflict over this issue.

Nevertheless, the one thing that all Christians, including their churches and denominations, ought to agree upon is that Christians are not to be a people of hate nor are to promote, encourage, preach/teach, or model hatred toward any person or group of persons.  Why?  Because such teaching or action is contrary to the teaching and practice of Christ; for without question, Jesus extended tender compassion, merciful love, and redeeming grace to all people (ALL!).

Yet, there is always some extremist pastor out there who passionately and gleefully teaches hateful condemnation against members of the LGBT community—which directly or indirectly gives tacit approval to hateful acts of violence against them.  This is wrong and should not be accepted or encouraged by any who identify themselves as followers of Christ—as Christian.

Evangelical Christians may feel a bit defensive here, saying, “‘Hate the sin; love the sinner.’  We don’t hate the person; we just hate the lifestyle.”  I submit that this response is too easily and perfunctorily said, sounding more like a backhanded way of justifying the continuation of hate.  Few Christians actually seem to live-up to even that much.  In terms of spirit and attitude, how exactly do you divide the LGBT person from the person’s LGBT lifestyle when deciding to compassionately “love the sinner” while vehemently attacking the sin with hateful spite and excoriating condemnation in one’s heart?  We’re talking about the attitude or spirit of one’s heart.

Don’t misunderstand, I am not arguing for the lessoning or weakening of one’s Biblical or Theological conviction(s).  Still, good solid Bible believing Christians disagree on this issue.  So we must hold our conviction(s) with courage and sound integrity, but also with humility.  For, remember that, come Judgment Day, Jesus will focus more on what one’s heart was like (loving and compassionate?), rather than on what one’s mind gave rational assent to (Biblical theology).  Jesus leaves us no room to harbor hatred of any kind for anyone.  Love is His greatest commandment, which we, His followers, must follow and practice toward all.

Senator Purdue Quotes Psalm 109 verse 8 Against Obama?

It was a joke.

Is the media making too much of it?  They point to the very next verse (v.9) and say that this can be interpreted as a possible death wish on Obama.

But, Senator David Purdue (R-Ga) only quoted verse 8.  That’s all.

Actually, people do this all the time.  Pastors do this.  Quote a Bible verse, or a portion of a Bible verse, out of context—to be funny, to get a laugh.

For example, when I lived in the metropolitan Phoenix area of Arizona, a pastor humorously quoted Acts 27:12 to refer to all the “snow birds” coming down from the northern colder regions of our country to winter in Phoenix.  The congregation laughed.  It was a play on Biblical words, a joke.

And so was Senator Purdue’s pointed Biblical reference to verse 8 of Psalm 109.  It was a joke, nothing more and nothing less.  I can accept that.

Nevertheless, it is revealing.
Our extremely polarized political landscape leaves little room for humor these days.

Each side has so little respect for the people on the other side.  What we constantly hear is the distaste, even disgust, of the one side for the other.  We witness their anger, even hatred.  We see the ongoing ill-will that the one side has toward the other, such as when it is said that Obama is the devil or Hillary is evil incarnate.

In such a context there is little room for “innocent” jokes, for any joke will be harshly received and misinterpreted as a covert threat-message by the other side.  Defenses go up and nothing “innocent” is heard at all.

It is revealing in that it shows that the far right will not be happy unless they have total control over congress, the senate, the presidential office, and the Supreme Court—emphasis on TOTAL control.  The same could be said of the far left.  This is why congress gets so little done and why blockage, obstruction, and nay-saying, is the modus operandi of the day.

The American people want change but are not getting real change because we are not electing people, on either side, who are able or willing to work together with the other side, to make productive change.  What we seem to be doing is choosing extremists sides and electing officials to fight with that kind of mindset, with total control goals as their agenda.  In short, we’re electing representative officials that seem to carry only extreme positions.  The real problem therefore seems to lie within our primary electoral process.

The question is this: Can we change that process?  Are we willing to do so?  Is it possible to give more power to the balanced middle voice, which perhaps is the majority of Americans, so that they have a more effective presence in the political process?  Or shall we continue to allow extremists to rule the political process?

Are You Listening/Being Heard?

Perhaps the more important question for you is: Do people listen to you, when you speak?  Are you being heard?

A few days ago, my wife spent the day watching our two granddaughters, three year-old Hope, and her six-month old sister, Rose.  I asked my wife how the day went: “Fine,” she said, “But, Hope is at that age where she talks and talks and talks and expects a response almost after every sentence.  So at one point I finally said to her, ‘Shhh’!”  My wife continued, “And, you know what Hope said to that?  She said, ‘Don’t say, “Shhh!” to me.’”  In other words, my granddaughter told my wife in no uncertain terms, “Don’t shush me!”

It takes concerted effort, mental energy, concentration, and sometimes emotional energy, to really listen to someone.

Many of us feel unheard.  As if no one listens to us.   Funny, but we seem to instinctively know when others are not listening, either unwilling or unable to give us their full attention.  Children certainly do.  They know when they’re being ignored, seen but not heard.

Child or adult, when we’re frustrated or angry, or in turmoil or are deeply pained over something, what we seem to want the most is a “listening ear”—someone that will hear us—without judgment, without trying to fix us, and without uninvited advice.  We don’t want a know-it-all telling us where we went wrong, what we should have done, might have done, or could have done differently.  At such moments, all we want is to be heard.

“Listen to me!”

Someone ever say that to you?

You’re not listening!!  Stop!  Look!  Listen!

We may not always be aware of our own lack of attention at times.

We might assume that we already know what the speaker is going to say.  We interrupt, not letting the person finish his/her thought.  Or our body language reveals signs of distraction and inattentiveness—lack of eye-contact, eyes roaming and/or focusing on other things or people, drawing our attention elsewhere.  Hence, we’re not fully tuned-in, not really listening.  There is too much atmospheric static as it were.  And the speaker senses this.

Listening is an art; and a science, requiring physical stamina, mental willpower, and heartfelt interest in the other.  We may have two ears, but we don’t always seem to know how to use them well.

For one, some people are just hard to listen to because they don’t know how to say what they mean and mean what they say in a nutshell.  They prattle.  They wander all over the place before they ever get to the point, if they get there at all.

Another problem is our environments.  Not all contexts are suited for quality conversational experiences.  Noise level may be high.  Children may be crying or calling for attention.  The phone rings.  The TV is shouting in the background.  The office machines are too loud.  Dogs are barking.  How can one hear, let alone listen, under such circumstances?

Emotions may also be a problem to good listening.  When a person has an emotional outburst, all we may hear is the emotion and take-in nothing of what has actually been said in terms of substance and content.  Here, we may actually be treading on sacred ground, dealing with “personal” stuff.  The challenge here is not to stuff, hide, deny, or suppress one’s emotions, but to deal with them, own them with honestly and integrity.  And to listen with the utmost respect!

These are a few reasons why listening can be such a difficult task.  There are many more.  It is also why we do best if we first assume that we are NOT good listeners and must intentionally learn how to listen well.  We must train ourselves to become good listeners.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to see if you are listening well.

Can you mirror back in your own words, a concise and precise summary of what you just heard?

Did you pause to ask questions for clarity’s sake, along the way in the conversation?

Did you hear the speaker’s content behind the emotion or did you only experience the speaker’s emotion as he/she delivered the content?  That is, did you hear the speaker’s mind as well as the speaker’s passion?

Does what you heard require a thoughtful response from you?  Or does it only need an acknowledgment of having heard it?

If a thoughtful response is required, are you able to give a proper response, right then and there, or do you need to ask for time to think about it before responding?  And are you aware of your own emotions as you begin to formulate a response?

Good communication and good listening is about relationship: to hear and to be heard is to respect each other's personal presence, value, and significance.