Today we had ourselves a Zoom meeting, and the topic was on how to stay spiritually and physically healthy. The physical aspect makes sense during these pandemic times -- with the gyms closed and staying at home all day, it's easy to neglect exercising and health. I, myself, have noticed I haven't been getting any upper body workout of any kind. And I've just now started taking vitamins to boost immunity in case I catch this disease.
The spiritual aspect is just as important, and lately I've felt a little lacking. And someone suggested -- if you have issues, instead of hitting them head on, perhaps the best approach is to build up your spirituality, (and merging in what others said), and then you can build momentum to quickly attack any and all issues effectively ... kind of like building a spiritual immunity.
So, I'm going to add quick little weekly snippets on this blog where I pick some random spiritual topic and blah blah blah for about 30 minutes (which for me can be on the moderately long side). As always, I encourage further discussions and reactions in the comments -- either here, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
So am I spiritual enough? I come across as a funny guy. I'm always telling jokes, and I can take almost any situation and come up with a bad dad pun in five seconds flat. And yeah, sometimes they can get dirty. People who know me know I have a hard time turning that off. I guess it's how my brain works, and I like to make people laugh. Happiness, I find, is a cure for almost all ills. And it definitely increases my popularity.
But am I spiritual? I'm not sure exactly how to answer that. I look at some people who are really good at doing all the checkbox items: reading scriptures, going to church, doing their ministering assignments, regular family readings and meetings, doing genealogy, visiting the sick in the hospitals, and so on, so on.
And then I look at myself. It's hard to keep up with all that stuff and still have time for other things. I'm more inconsistent with the checkbox items. But I still feel like I have a decent relationship with God. It always feels like I have a prayer in my heart mostly all the time, and I'm always bouncing ideas at God ... I never give him a break. These are less like prayers, but more like a conversation with a mentor. I know he's listening, and sometimes I hear him answer back. He'll say, "Now that's a great idea." And then many times I never get around to executing that plan.
At least I'm communicating.
The world we live in is busy. There are so many things to do. I'm trying to keep up with my day job and my music publishing business. My subconscious is running all the time, doing code almost every waking hour, composing music, planning, finding patterns in everything, cooking up stories. It never shuts off ... and how can I compete with that and be more spiritual?
I don't think checking off the boxes gets one into heaven, but doing those items certainly helps one to focus and learn how to be spiritual. But what exactly does that mean ... to be spiritual?
I think it's connecting to all things spiritual, whether it's talking to God, thinking about Jesus, or becoming receptive to the influence of the Holy Spirit. People of other religions can also be spiritual and connect with higher beings, or gain a higher understanding of one's existence through deep meditation.
But none of it does any good unless it's turned into action. Once we have a higher understanding, it should always translate into something actionable -- in other words, we can understand what we can do better to make someone's life more bearable.
We can bear testimony to our friends and explain spiritual matters. We can be guided to seek out people who need help, and provide assistance. We may even learn what tasks or projects we can accomplish that is lovely and of good report so that we can bring happiness to many people.
If we're always striving to do better, improving our own lives, or the lives of our friends and neighbors, then yes ... I think we are being spiritual enough.
What do you think?
This ends my 30 minutes of random blah blah, but I hope it is received well. I'll keep this up every Sunday, and see how it goes. My own personal plan to increase my own spiritual immunity and hopefully make other people's life better in some small way.
I think you'd like this BYU-I devotional talk by Elder Renlund. His analogy of spiritual preparation is a good one. https://www.byui.edu/devotionals/elder-and-sister-renlund
ReplyDeleteI believe that's a question that only you can answer. I know my mentors keep reminding me that prayer is our way to communicate w/Spirit, and meditation is how we listen for answers. I find myself, like you, in somewhat of an all-day dialog in my head with God, however, what I have been know to lack in is giving enough still-time, to meditation, to be available for whatever comes to mind. The question, 'am I spiritual enough' is like a record that keeps playing in my mind, on a daily basis. What I've come to realize is that other's, those around me that are not able to see what's in my head, can only experience my spirituality through my words, my actions, my compassion, and basically how I make them feel. I know with the world around us, being a circus that we cannot escape, finding a time to meditate and focus on showing up with LOVE, versus showing up with judgement...we are all here to help each other, and to remind each other as well as uplift each other-however most days that's accomplished one moment at a time.
ReplyDeleteGood comments and suggestions!
ReplyDelete