Spiritual life is not designed for speed.
We tend to evaluate our lives based on a desire to accumulate as much as we can in the shortest possible time. Whether we focus on resources or relationships, experiences or education, we want to live quickly. We collect adventures, friends, meals; squeezing them into our already overcommitted schedules.
We believe that not living this way means we are wasting time.
We are afraid we will miss something crucial if we do not do whatever we can to gain as much as we can.
Our understanding of spiritual life is similar to our understanding of other aspects of our lives. We hope that if we try as many different practices and experiences as we can, we will find spiritual depth.
We view spiritual life as a race, either a sprint or a marathon, and we want to run it as fast as we can.
Some of us train to develop our spiritual lives. We find practices that we hope help us get faster, more healthy spiritual lives. Like runners who get up early in the morning to prepare for a race, some of us pray or read spiritual books. Some of us practice acts of kindness or hospitality, working to build spiritual muscle and lung capacity.
We exercise, we train, and we want to see ourselves make progress. We want to win the race of our spiritual lives.
Spiritual life is not about winning a race. As our spiritual lives deepen and grow, we find they may take much longer than we hoped. There is no finish line, and we are not working to beat any other runners.
What practices help deepen and strengthen spiritual life in you?
How will you seek spiritual depth in our life this week?
[Image by Fe Ilyas]
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