Spirit Matters: Spirituality provides a unique lens into reality

What are you most passionate about?

What could you spend limitless time doing without getting tired or bored?

It should come as no surprise that I am fascinated with the spiritual aspect of reality.

I have explored the subject my entire life through books, classes, prayer, meditation, retreats, observation, etc.

I have often been challenged by what I have read or heard, and continue to learn to soften any grip on thinking I have all the answers. Questioning ourselves and our beliefs is not a bad thing. Done right, it often leads to greater insight, and opens a door to deeper exploration.

I have learned if one’s spirituality isn’t based on an organic sense of being interconnected with the rest of creation, and the responsibility to one another that entails, then it is not authentic spirituality.

And that no matter what our position in life, our vocation, without exception, is to live from a heart of sacred love. Authentic spirituality is seeing beyond the exterior into the interior reality that class structure is meaningless in the kingdom of God. No matter who we are – no matter our wealth, accomplishments or lack thereof – we are all seen as equal in the heart of God.

My passion for matters of the spirit and the soul is what drives my daily life. It infuses everything I do, and all I hope to be, with an unquenchable curiosity.

It is why I show up here every week, with the hope that readers will grow into a deeper awareness of the world being “charged with the grandeur of God.“

To me, those words reveal an awesome reality. Everything and everyone is “charged” with the Spirit of the Living God. Or, to put it in other terms, that Divine Spirit pervades all things.

Our ancestors, who lived in quieter, less industrialized times knew this as a fact of life.

They saw and experienced the active presence of the living God in their lives, in good times and in bad. They depended on that presence of the living God to be their compass in making decisions, big and small.

Some today would say that with all of our so-called advancements, those who went before us lived naïve lives, believing in things that could not be proven with scientific methods.

But did they?

No time in history is perfect, and there will always be fighting among humans, but when I look back at pre-industrial times, I see people living according to a more natural rhythm, along with the wisdom of the seasons.

I see them living more soulful lives, something that is seriously lacking in our age of constantly being “online.” There is no irony greater than the more we are “online,” the more disconnected we are from what is really Real.

In a modern world that worships the ideal of individuality, we are far less “individual” than our ancestors were, for we are beholden to what the world ‘out there’ tells us we should be, while they simply lived their lives based on the voice of their inner spirit.

Despite current societal evidence to the contrary, there is meaning and order in this universe in which we live.

Underneath all the noise, a still, small voice beckons each one of us.

And that is really the wonder of the spiritual walk – listening to the voice of the Creator Spirit and discovering that each of our inner spirits is an intricately woven part of the Whole.

It is the adventure of a lifetime.

SPIRIT MATTERS is a weekly column by Jerrilyn Zavada Novak that examines experiences common to the human spirit. Contact her at jzblue33@yahoo.com.