Life, Love and Spirit

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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