Dear Spiritual Companions,

Did God ever invite you to get off your religious high horse?  I had that experience recently.  God is never critical, but rather invitational, so when I heard from Her she asked me who I served.  Interesting question in this Lenten time isn’t it?  As we face the temptations of our lives, at the bottom of them is found who we are serving.  Henri Nouwen often talked about the temptation of being relevant.  Behind this is the Lord of making a name for yourself so God can appreciate all of our doings.  Obviously this is a religious message carried down to us through the ages.  If our ego and god is going to live on long after we are gone we have to be relevant!  But possibly God doesn’t care about whether others appreciate our actions for we are already appreciated as we are by God.  Another word for this is Grace.  When we accept this gift then God’s Spiritual Horse comes along to pick us up and we are ready for the ride of a life time!

I am a year into my retirement and God has been revealing ways that I can still be of service.  It has been wonderful to discover a whole new life rising up before me.  The only problem has been that temptation of relevance.  Am I doing enough, will people notice my writing and appreciate all the wisdom I have to share?  As I raise those questions and face the fallout from them I become anxious.  The minute I am aware of the uneasiness within me I know something is not quite right.  When I am in sinc with God things flow and harmony abounds.  When I am on the wrong path I doubt and life is a little off for me.  This is when my quiet time comes into play.  I begin to ask what is wrong?   At the right time in the right way for me God speaks through my reading, walking, praying or simply being.   So recently God said, “Who do you serve?”  I said, “You of course.”  God said, “Oh really.  Is what I place in front of you every day not enough?  Do you not trust that life as it is isn’t sufficient?”  The great thing about God is She is asks open ended questions.  The query’s placed before me were ones to ponder.  Could I be serving my ego instead of God?  Could I be looking for something other than life as it is?  Could I be missing the impact I am making in the Name of God?  I decided to get on God’s Spiritual Horse and ride for a bit pondering my life as I knew it.  What a great feeling it is to have the spirit’s breeze of peace pass over me.

The major difference between riding the religious horse and the spiritual horse is found in the destination.  With the religious horse we will hopefully find relevancy, perfection, right answers, a sense of control and a God created in our image.    With the Spiritual Horse we will discover irrelevancy, imperfection, right questions, a lack of control and a God creating us in a Graceful Image of who we can become.  It seems a little crazy to ride God’s Horse, but then it was silly for the spiritual folk who preceded us to do what they did.  All I know is I felt more peaceful after I got off of my religious high horse to once again ride on God’s spiritual Horse.

Peace

Gary