The Spiritual Risk

Garnett Foster, the director of the doctor of ministry program at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary says about ministry students: "I find often that students want to be more spiritual, imagining that means they will always feel good and have warm fuzzy feelings about every aspect of life. Spirituality joins running and self-help programs as one more way persons attempt to fill the emptiness in their lives."

The risk of spirituality--even for ministers!--is that we make it about us. It is a little frightening to think that spirituality might involve the Spirit--making it Spirituality [capital "S"] rather than spirituality.

In Romans 12:1-2, Paul give a glimpse intspiritualityty. I glean these five basics from that text:

1. Spirituality is based on God's Mercy
2. Spirituality comes through the sacrifice of our bodies, not the indulgence of them
3. Spirituality means we give up worldly norms for evaluation of life
4. Spirituality means we are transformed by the renewal of our minds
5. As we develop spirituality, we are better able to discern God's will

The beginning and ending of biblical spirituality is God. It begins with God's mercy and involves our sacrifice, our redefinition of ourselves based on God's values. As our minds are remade in the image of God we are transformed, and so we are able to better discern God's will.

We seek spirituality to be comforted, or even to be comfortable. But surely spirituality is really about conforming and transforming.

How are you being transformed?