Now Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses (Deut. 34:9).
The spiritual life is a matter of biology-- it has immediate bearing on our lives (Evelyn Underhill: The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today)
In the Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul says, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit given to all." Everything we do expresses the spirit that is within us. After Hurricane Katrina, the spirit that lay at the heart of each person began to express itself outwardly. As at the first day of creation, there was only light and there was dark; there were no greys. Some rose to heroic expressions of self-sacrifice and self-giving; others began to loot and to take advantage of the suffering of others. The spirit that inhabited each man and woman rose to full expression of being in that moment of crisis.
Every one of us has a basic instinct for fullness of life. Everything we crave, dream, or think is an expression of one psychic energy that lies deep within us. We are all called to one life -- to beauty, to truth, and to the service of mankind. The more deeply and fully we recognize and love that Spirit of God within us, the nearer we draw to it, the more we experience its transforming and energizing power. The more we bury, deny, and suppress our vocation to love, to be like God, the more evil takes over our lives.
The central business of religion is finding, experiencing, and knowing Eternal Life. The Baltimore Catechism that most of us grew up with said this: Why did God make me? God made me to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this life and to be happy forever with Him in heaven. Religion is committed to achieving an integration, a synthesis, of human nature and divine Spirit-- lifting up the whole of life to a greater reality. Those who deny access to the Spirit of God are condemned to live for the flesh alone; they will never know the strength, the power, the authority--the Spirit of wisdom-- that Joshua lived during his lifetime.
When we speak of the Incarnation, we mean that the Word of God -- the Power, the Strength, the Authority that created the heavens and the earth-- entered our world and dwelt among us. God Himself became real with us, to us, among us. We saw Him; we ate with him; we heard Him with our own ears and saw Him with our own eyes. Our lives, too, must become incarnational. That is, the Spirit of God must express in us and through us all that God is. The essence of spirituality is to express the Divine in all that we do.
Failing to seek and to integrate God's Holy Spirit in our lives inevitably means a loss of power, a relapse to the lower level of nature and a smaller world for us.
Every one of us has a basic instinct for fullness of life. Everything we crave, dream, or think is an expression of one psychic energy that lies deep within us. We are all called to one life -- to beauty, to truth, and to the service of mankind. The more deeply and fully we recognize and love that Spirit of God within us, the nearer we draw to it, the more we experience its transforming and energizing power. The more we bury, deny, and suppress our vocation to love, to be like God, the more evil takes over our lives.
The central business of religion is finding, experiencing, and knowing Eternal Life. The Baltimore Catechism that most of us grew up with said this: Why did God make me? God made me to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this life and to be happy forever with Him in heaven. Religion is committed to achieving an integration, a synthesis, of human nature and divine Spirit-- lifting up the whole of life to a greater reality. Those who deny access to the Spirit of God are condemned to live for the flesh alone; they will never know the strength, the power, the authority--the Spirit of wisdom-- that Joshua lived during his lifetime.
When we speak of the Incarnation, we mean that the Word of God -- the Power, the Strength, the Authority that created the heavens and the earth-- entered our world and dwelt among us. God Himself became real with us, to us, among us. We saw Him; we ate with him; we heard Him with our own ears and saw Him with our own eyes. Our lives, too, must become incarnational. That is, the Spirit of God must express in us and through us all that God is. The essence of spirituality is to express the Divine in all that we do.
Failing to seek and to integrate God's Holy Spirit in our lives inevitably means a loss of power, a relapse to the lower level of nature and a smaller world for us.
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