Spiritual Being, Human Path
Today I am grateful for some front porch time last night. I am also grateful for the spiritual growth I have had over the years, particularly in my years of recovery from alcoholism.
A saying that always gets me thinking is "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience."
These are the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. de Chardin was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who lived from 1881-1955. Some of his teachings and ideas came into conflict with church officials during his lifetime. This little bit is the most I have read about the man behind a favorite quote of mine, but it sounds like he spoke his truth. That takes courage and I am inspired by that.
Spiritual being. Human path. Spirituality is where it all starts. Where did it start for me? Today I can say that being raised Catholic, attending Catholic school through 8th grade, and spending every holy day of obligation at mass did teach me some things. It took until adulthood to fully appreciate most of that though.
The clincher for me was living through many drunken nights. I could have died of alcohol poisoning, killed myself in a car accident, or other tragic endings. But someone was watching out for me, someone had a bigger plan to keep me around. When I got sober and looked back on my drinking, I had felt abandoned by God, when in fact God had been there all along protecting me. I was the one who had abandoned that relationship. Slowly, I started working on building that damaged relationship back up. It is work I continue to this day, but we get along much better now because my periods of abandoning God tend to be much shorter.
"Faith without works is dead." We may be spiritual beings on a human path, but it is definitely my humanness that teaches me why I need spirituality.
Have a good day!
A saying that always gets me thinking is "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience."
These are the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. de Chardin was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who lived from 1881-1955. Some of his teachings and ideas came into conflict with church officials during his lifetime. This little bit is the most I have read about the man behind a favorite quote of mine, but it sounds like he spoke his truth. That takes courage and I am inspired by that.
Spiritual being. Human path. Spirituality is where it all starts. Where did it start for me? Today I can say that being raised Catholic, attending Catholic school through 8th grade, and spending every holy day of obligation at mass did teach me some things. It took until adulthood to fully appreciate most of that though.
The clincher for me was living through many drunken nights. I could have died of alcohol poisoning, killed myself in a car accident, or other tragic endings. But someone was watching out for me, someone had a bigger plan to keep me around. When I got sober and looked back on my drinking, I had felt abandoned by God, when in fact God had been there all along protecting me. I was the one who had abandoned that relationship. Slowly, I started working on building that damaged relationship back up. It is work I continue to this day, but we get along much better now because my periods of abandoning God tend to be much shorter.
"Faith without works is dead." We may be spiritual beings on a human path, but it is definitely my humanness that teaches me why I need spirituality.
Have a good day!
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