Spirituality Classroom Blog
Focus on God. Then Do Simple Things
As we go through life, day after day, it's all too easy to focus on the activities of the day, checking off our to-do lists. It's all to easy to focus on bringing in that next pay check. It's too easy to focus on our families, and ourselves.
As Christians, we know that we're "supposed" to focus on God, but many times, that may not be our daily reality. There's just too much to do. After all, we're not monks.
When abusive situations in our church have happened to us, it's even easier for our focus to not be on God, but on our hurt, on the injustice of it all, on our anger. Or maybe we are focusing on God -- but by blaming Him for what happened.
For the time being, it would seem that a healthy faith has flown out the window. Someone else's cruelty has proven to be a serious distraction from the way we view church, from the way we used to be able to pray, and from the love of God.
And yet, that's exactly where our healing lies: ...
Pray Always. Laugh Often. Grow in Christ.
Why do you suppose I chose the phrase "Pray Always. Laugh Often. Grow in Christ." to be the logo for Spirituality Classroom?
Each of those short sentences means a lot to me in the way that I maintain my own spiritual wellness. So let’s take a look at each of them. Perhaps you'll glean meaning from them too.
Pray always.
Does it seem possible or impossible to you – to ALWAYS be at prayer? If you’re thinking, “No, it’s not possible, then why would St. Paul tell us to do exactly that – to pray always? Yet which of us, even on good days, manages to pray all the way through any set of waking hours, even when we haven't been hurt badly?
Spiritual abuse can cripple our faith at a deep and basic level, affects the health or dis-ease of our prayer life. When it seems as though we can’t pray any more, then is it absurd to talk about praying always? I think not.
In the...