April 2011 Interview on Spirituality -- 1

This month, I was interviewed about my spiritual journey.  Because the interview is somewhat lengthy, I'll post it in four or more segments.  Here's the first:

What does the word “spiritual” mean to you?

       When the word, “spiritual” comes into a conversation, my thoughts turn to the experience of the divine, that which is beyond the five senses.  I have become comfortable with the phrase, “a power greater than myself” to speak of the divine. If I want to be more specific, I use the word, “God.”   At a very basic level, this power is good, loves, and has the intention to evolve, and not just within the God-self, but also in all of creation.  This God is also able to take any evil and bring good out of it.  

How did you get from where you started out to where you are now regarding spirituality and religion?

       As a child, I always had an affinity for religion and spirituality.  I loved Sunday School in my Methodist church, and when I made an adult decision to put my life in Christ’s hands, I experienced an abundant waterfall of God’s love receiving and welcoming me.

       My early years as an adult Christian were a perfect expression of what James Fowler, in his Stages of Faith, calls the “adolescent phase.”  I was very literal in my beliefs, taking the Bible at face value.  I was quite self-righteous, thinking I knew the only full and true expression of faith which was clearly spelled out in the Bible.  This stage lasted from my adult conversion in 1971 until I went to seminary in 1989.

       In seminary, I discovered that good Christian theologians had different interpretations of the Bible, and realized God more loving and mysterious than I had ever imagined possible.  Long illness also changed my charismatic faith in healing.  Many people prayed for me, but I remained ill.  I couldn’t understand why God was allowing this and came to see that my own choices were the much of the reason I was ill. Spiritual direction offered by Sr. Joan of the Carmelites, followed by other spiritual directors, helped me to get in touch with God within myself.  When I was turned down by the Carmelites, after wanting to join them as a monastic contemplative, my beliefs hemorrhaged away, and all that was left was an intuition of God as Mystery.  Teaching religious studies at the University of Nevada Reno, and needing to delve into other religions, broadened and deepened my faith, especially through the teachings of Huston Smith who taught religion at MIT and Berkeley.

       Today that intuition of God as Mystery has deepened so that I have few specific beliefs, but do have a strong sense of oneness with God and desire to grow in love for God.