I simply went to Chapel to nurture my own soul. One of the things I learned a long time ago
was that I need to take care of myself spiritually. In my own case it is easy to fall into the
illusion that I do this all day long.
The illusion is grounded in the fact that I teach spirituality. Most days I am reading and talking about
spirituality. Most days I actually try
to write a little bit about spirituality.
In that sense I am immersed in spirituality.
Because of this fact, it would be easy to assume that I live
in spiritual luxury. It would be
analogous to being a spiritual millionaire!
If it is all around me, why not assume that daily I am being fed
soulfully? At one level, I am fed
daily. Doing what I do is certainly
better than having a job I hate and which drains my soul. I am very lucky. Again, it is like I am rich.
However, I became aware of the illusion of looking at myself
and my job teaching spirituality and assumed I would automatically be
spiritual. The illusion would assume
that just because I read a spiritual book, I therefore become spiritual. This is simply not true. Think about another example. I could read a book on evil, but that does
not mean I automatically become evil.
Knowledge about something does not mean I become that something. Why would spirituality be any different?
So I try to do some things that feed my soul and nurture my
spirit. Often this means I need to be in
a context where I am not responsible for leadership. That is why I like to go to Chapel on my
campus or to Catholic Mass or even worship with the Jewish community and
meditate with the Buddhists. They never
ask me to get up front and provide leadership for everyone else sitting in the
audience. I like that. I need that.
I can be present for my own spiritual time.
So there I sat at the back.
I was participating. I was
listening. In the meditative words being
shared by my friend he used a phrase that struck a chord in my soul. I can imagine he does not even remember that
particular phrase. There is no way he
could be aware how it hit me. I am not
even sure why it struck me in the manner it did. I am just thankful.
I am grateful that I cannot recall the context in which he
used the phrase. That means I can take
it however I please! The phrase he
uttered was, “to make a way when there is no way.” The first thing that occurred to me was how
often I have heard people say, “No way!”
In fact, it is sometimes used almost as a slang phrase. I have heard it used with a disbelieving
inflection of the voice---people saying, “No wayyyyyy!” In the more secular usage, people say the
same thing when they admit “there is no way in hell that is going to happen!”
At another level, when I think about the phrase, “No way,” I
think more literally. This phrase can be
used when things seem impossible. We see
some elite athlete perform and think, “No way I could do that.” And that’s usually true. I can think about many things like this. I don’t have enough talent, enough money,
enough time, enough courage, and so on to be or to do something. “No way!”
However, “no way” was only half the phrase my friend
used. He said “to make a way when there
is no way.” There was something that
felt just right about that. I am
convinced I had that feeling because it seemed spiritually true. Perhaps it was just because I was sitting in
the Chapel feeding my soul. But it
seemed somehow spiritually true. How do
we make a way when there is no way?
Allow me to offer two spiritual answers.
One way my own spiritual tradition says we can make a way
when there is no way is to bring grace into the picture. Grace is God’s gift to me. Sometimes that gift comes directly. At other times it comes indirectly from other
people---God graces me through them. Grace
is God’s gift. Grace is God’s presence
and power in my life. Sometimes it
supplements my efforts. Grace is not
magic---some kind of spiritual hocus-pocus.
The second spiritual answer I offer to help understand how
we make a way when there is no way is community. I don’t know how many times I have been in a
place where there was “No way!” And then
community would come into play. Being in
and with community meant I was in a place where we make a way when there is no
way. Sometimes the community itself
would make the way. Sometimes they would
make it possible for me to make a way when I could not have done it on my own.
When I am given grace and community, there is only one
response possible: thanks! Gratitude is
the currency of grace and community.
Perhaps that is why the phrase my friend uttered resonated deeply in my
soul. Once again I was reminded how
profoundly I have been enabled to make a way when there was no way. Thanks be to God and to my community.
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