March 29, 2007 by Rev. Sean McMillan.

Religion and spirituality is not the same thing. As we study the life and ministry of Jesus Christ it is clear to see that he was not invested in the task of furthering the aims of religion but was rather dedicated to bringing people into real relationship with God. And this is what spirituality is all about. To be spiritual is to be in real communion with God. It is a way of life and not a moment, a place, or a ritual one might observe or practice within a particular tradition. True spirituality is a perspective available to any one who would dare to be in intimate relationship with the living God. Spirituality is a lifestyle and as a lifestyle it is defined by ones ability to see the hand of God moving across the landscape of our lives without regard to race, class, gender, orientation, or geography. Spiritual people are not better than anyone else but in their hunger for God they have developed the ability to sense the presence of God in the strangest places and view their lives through the eyes of eternity and not the temporal distinctions that divide us one from another.

 The path to true spirituality begins with love. Whenever a man or a woman begins to love the God of their salvation and not just fear him, there is available to that man or woman a power that will never be found in religion. Jesus taught us that we should love God with all of our heart, with all of our mind, and with all of our soul; and he did so because he understood that it is only in the presence of love that we become greater than ourselves. Jesus understood that the only way to truly measure the success of a life was to measure it in love because it is only in the presence of love that we become most like God.
 

What do you love?  Is your relationship with God about love or is it about need? When did you know that it was love and not just religion? 

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March 8, 2007 by Rev. Sean McMillan.

Two weeks ago I was in New Orleans for a Pastors conference and spent the better part of my time in the lower ninth ward. You do remember the lower ninth don’t you? How could any of us forget what happened in New Orleans over a year ago when the levies broke and for four days thousands of people were stranded in the streets of a major American city without food or water? How could any of us forget what we saw on television that week or how we felt as the coming days brought no relief to the victims of Katrina and the people of New Orleans in particular. And as I stood on the saddest soil in the United States of America I could hear the melancholy music of the levies, the sweet sound of conscience, and the requiem of some inner voice reminding me of why God loved King and Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Mary the Mother of Christ. They were all great souls; and in the ordinary expression of their greatness they found the courage to live for something greater than themselves.
 
People who are only motivated by their personal interest will soon be forgotten after their time here on earth is done; but those of us who find the courage to speak for the least of these, who advocate for children and perhaps even for the child in us, who believe in the dignity of every expression of our collective humanity even if we disagree with the person or their lifestyle, for those of us who work for possibility and not for a check, who give without needing something in return, and for those of us who know the joy of celebrating someone else’s success, history, even if it is a story only told once, will not forget that we were here.   

We need you to shine. People who have never met you and will never see your face need you to spread your wings in tight places so that the power to fly will be real to them. The children of Bangladesh and the Sudan need to hear of how you refused to dim your light even amid the horrors of an unspeakable situation so that somewhere in the bruising darkness they will feel the glow of what you do and know that life will make away.

And lastly, the people of New Orleans need you to remember their cause. Keep shining like the sun-the world needs you.

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March 8, 2007 by Rev. Sean McMillan.

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March 8, 2007 by Rev. Sean McMillan.

Let us begin with a rather simple fact, and it is this: you will never be successful at becoming the person you desire to be until you learn how to mange your issues. And make no mistake about it–we all have issues. We are all living with unanswered questions, unresolved insecurities and certain irreducible fears that live at the center of lives and at times make us less than who we are. Problems happen to us but issues happen in us. They are the experiences, questions, and longings that penetrate deep into the core of who we are; and even when our problems change our issues remain the same, because, each of us have been constructed around the presence of an irreducible shame.

And I wish I could tell you that one day all of your issues will be resolved but nothing about human history leads me to believe that this is a realistic expectation. Even in the bible great men and women were constantly struggling with their issues, and apart of what made them great is the fact that they took the sadness of their inner conflicts and transformed what should have been something dark and full of dissonance into something remarkably melodious and beautiful.

 

None of us are perfect–but we can use the worst in us to make the best in us come alive. Sometimes before we can help–we must hurt. Your weaknesses keep you humble, they keep you grounded; and if you let them, they can also make you great; because anything that has the power to make you weep has also the power to make you reach for the living God.

 

These are the issue of our lives; and each morning as we rise to face the coming of the day, we do so knowing all the while that there lurks beneath the surface of the smiles we bare a reason to cry…But we choose to smile anyway.

Now that’s a Giant Step.

  

 

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