Danny ChaiI spent much of the morning reading Dave’s old thoughts. Good reading. Reminded me of why it was my favorite page back in the day. Not just mine. It was actually Joe’s browser’s default page for a while. Absurd.
So I’ve been mildly depressed for the past couple of days for the most ridiculous of reasons – the very last Rurouni Kenshin manga came out. I get sad when something I’m emotionally invested in ends. Like after I read the last Robotech book in Junior High (End Of The Circle, not the crappy fill-in books that came out after) I think I was down for a month. The feeling that something you love is all over gets to me.
Anyway, everyone else I know that was into Kenshin moved on long ago but I’ve kept on reading the monthly manga releases. And Kenshin is one of the greatest stories ever. Highly recommended. And I actually think it’s a source of spiritual encouragement, with what it has to say about purpose, sacrifice, and discipleship. Especially discipleship. And in the last story arc especially, there were multiple times when I thought, John absolutely has to read this. It’s like his discipleship dream come true. Anyway, I highly recommend it.
Hanah mentioned to me how I seem to be finding a lot of spiritual lessons in different things recently. I think I agree with that. It’s mildly related to one of my biggest life influences, Rich Mullins. But he was of the opinion the spiritual is in the practical everyday. Here’s a quote I love from him:
A lot of times we think something spiritual is happening and it is merely aesthetics. That is why it always bugs me at the end of a concert someone will say, “Wow the Spirit really worked” and I kind of go, “How would you even be able to know that? It was so noisy in here tonight. How would you know if the Spirit was working?” “Well, I was really moved.” Well, that is an emotional thing. That’s not a spiritual thing. A spiritual thing is folding your clothes at the end of the day. A spiritual thing is making your bed. A spiritual thing is taking cookies to your neighbor that is shut in or raking their front lawn because they are too old to do it. That’s spirituality. Getting a warm, oozy feeling about God is an emotional thing. There is nothing wrong with it. I think there is nothing more practical than real spirituality. But nothing more fun than just a good heartfelt emotional experience of God because I think emotions are good. They are only dangerous when we come away from an experience where we were emotionally manipulated and we confuse that with being convicted. I think conviction – there is an emotion that accompanies that but it certainly goes deeper than just coming away going, “Oh isn’t God neat? Two different worlds.
I totally agree with that sentiment. I think a lot of times, we confuse spirituality with something deeply metaphysical or otherworldly. But a lot of how Scripture describes the Spirit-filled life is practical. Like the fruit of the Spirit describe practical characteristics; it’s supernatural, but not mystical.
So yeah, I’m very much of the opinion that spirituality is a part of the practical day to day, not something that just happens on Sundays or during quiet times. And that there is spiritual insight to be gleaned from all parts of your life. Don’t get me wrong – the best sources of spiritual insight are still the obvious ones: Scripture, prayer, Biblical teaching and preaching, Christian community. But I dunno, I do think there’s secondary spiritual insight to be gained all over, when filtered through the Word.