Reflections on Lent, March 23, 2014
I have missed three days, and I don't want this to be some sort of legalistic, phony exercise. Not everyday do I have the time or a word to post anything meaningful. Yesterday I drove six hours, to go to a meeting related to my doctoral work. My sciatic is excruciating, and I've taken a pain pill and am lying on a heating pad, hoping to get over this day rather than prolong it, as the week ahead is challenging. Already today I have gone to early church and Sunday School, visited my mother, did her an errand and went to Sam's Club, and come home and done some housework. That is not much but it seems like a lot considering my pain, and that is the theme of this post.
In the car on Sundays I often listen to one or two programs that are basically about New Age philosophy. I won't name them, but they are broadcast on the local NPR station. Although I often roll my eyes at its talk of "spirituality," they often have interesting programs on the arts and creativity, so I like to hear it if I am in the car driving anyway. One speaker, or interview guest today, is a guru of time management (reading from his book's Amazon page) spoke about bringing strength out of yourself, your own spiritual resources, to deal with stress, etc., etc., blah, blah blah.
The difference between true Christian spirituality and this new age or humanistic spirituality (other than truth, of course) is the source. Internal or external? For Christians, it comes from another place, another person. We do not have it within ourselves; that is the whole point. Other views claim that it's all inside of ourselves and we just have to find the tools, the keys, the words to unlock it.
I do believe we have a lot of unconscious memories and experiences within us that can help us with creativity, but power to overcome, to serve, to do, is from the Holy Spirit.
Garrison Keillor once said, "The people who started the human potential movement had only known each other since Tuesday." That sums it up for me. Unfounded optimism.
There is a Lenten point to this: Lent is about the outside coming in, about the OUTSIDE ONE making it possible for us to enter Him and Him to enter us.
In the car on Sundays I often listen to one or two programs that are basically about New Age philosophy. I won't name them, but they are broadcast on the local NPR station. Although I often roll my eyes at its talk of "spirituality," they often have interesting programs on the arts and creativity, so I like to hear it if I am in the car driving anyway. One speaker, or interview guest today, is a guru of time management (reading from his book's Amazon page) spoke about bringing strength out of yourself, your own spiritual resources, to deal with stress, etc., etc., blah, blah blah.
The difference between true Christian spirituality and this new age or humanistic spirituality (other than truth, of course) is the source. Internal or external? For Christians, it comes from another place, another person. We do not have it within ourselves; that is the whole point. Other views claim that it's all inside of ourselves and we just have to find the tools, the keys, the words to unlock it.
I do believe we have a lot of unconscious memories and experiences within us that can help us with creativity, but power to overcome, to serve, to do, is from the Holy Spirit.
Garrison Keillor once said, "The people who started the human potential movement had only known each other since Tuesday." That sums it up for me. Unfounded optimism.
There is a Lenten point to this: Lent is about the outside coming in, about the OUTSIDE ONE making it possible for us to enter Him and Him to enter us.
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