The Spiritual Journey, According to Jesus, Part 1

Many years ago when I was Middle School, I remember the system that was in place for inviting another person into a romantic relationship. The technique involved preparing a handwritten note to be passed to the object of affection. The note read something like this: 

Will you go with me? 

Yes

No

Maybe

The most interesting part of the system was that dreaded third option, the “maybe!”

I am very grateful that the details surrounding romantic relationships mature as we get older. The system definitely changes for the better as we mature.

Yet sometimes I feel our spiritual development lags behind and continues to resemble those dreaded middle school “will you go with me” notes. In other words, an undeveloped understanding of spirituality leave us thinking that the key to the whole thing is selecting the correct option as to our religious preference. It is as if the note looks something like this:

What is your religious belief?

Christian

Jewish

Muslim

Hindu

Buddhist

None of the above

There could even be follow-up notes to clarify what kind of Christian, or Jew, you opt to be. Conservative? Orthodox? Progressive? Catholic? 

Just like we can eventually grow into a more mature way of understanding our romantic relationships, we can also grow to a more developed place in how we view our spirituality. I find this in the teachings of Jesus. Whether or not you identify as a Christian, I believe we can all glean useful insights from Jesus’ teaching as to what the further spiritual journey looks like. I will unpack some of those teachings in this series of posts, as we see that:

1) The spiritual journey leads us to increasing trust in God, and decreasing anxiety about or own performance.

2) The spiritual journey lead us to live increasingly in the present moment, and decreasingly in the future or the past.

3) The spiritual journey leads us to be increasingly gracious & generous, and decreasingly critical & condemning.