Christian Spirituality

‘Spirituality’ has become quite a trendy phrase in our postmodern society and is bandied about in a wide variety of contexts. Christian spirituality, too, is gaining interest, but what exactly is it? I’m currently involved with a two-year training course with the Centre of Ignatian Spirituality to become a spiritual guide. In an assignment for the course which asked that questions, what is Christian spirituality, I wrote, “Christian spirituality is a God-initiated process involving all that which will lead us towards a deepening intimacy with God and a growing fruitfulness of service in God’s world”.

The word ‘all’ in the definition is quite significant. I’m currently reading a book that resonated deeply with where I’m at right now, called The Discerning Heart. Here, Wilkie and Noreen Au suggest that hearing God involves becoming aware of our inner world of feelings, desires, thoughts, bodily sensations, dreams, aspirations and fears. It also involves a sensitive awareness to our external world, the things of the every day. They argue that God speaks to us in all things.

They suggest that “many of us have been conditioned to mistrust our personal experience and intuitions” and instead look for ‘the truth’, ‘right answers’ and God’s will in outside authority. Although they don’t dismiss external authority by any means, they encourage those seeking deeper intimacy with God to be open to the experiences of our inner worlds. They write: “The prejudice against the inner workings of the Spirit lead easily to an unhealthy betrayal of the self, the intimate dwelling place of God” (2008, 5).

There is a lot to say on the topic of Christian spirituality but perhaps this is a good introduction to my thoughts on it and what draws me to exploring Christian spirituality for myself. There is a deep emphasis on being open to parts of myself I so long mistrusted and denied. But I realize now that the very thing I was denying was that which God had so wonderfully created. I read on a bumper sticker recently something that perhaps captures this: Our Story – His glory. As long as I am in denial of all that I have been created to be, I am in denial of the One who created. Christian spirituality opens a way to sensitively and gently begin to explore the precious stories each of us hold within us that speak out the good news to the world around us.

Questioning the Nuclear Family

In Christian circles there has been a lot of talk around protecting the nuclear family. Perhaps it is less today than it was ten years ago, but nevertheless there is the assumption that the family unit of mom, dad and kids living in their independent house in the suburbs is an ideal that needs to be protected. Yet I question whether the nuclear family is a Biblical concept at all and I further question whether living in nuclear family units is necessarily the best social set up for us.

Interestingly, a very cursory internet research on the nuclear family shows that the idea of the nuclear family is argued to be necessary for the survival of the human species, to support certain political and economic systems, such as democracy and capitalism, societal ideals such as the American dream, the industrial revolution, the British aristocracy, and the maintenance of ideological roles of men, women and children. None of these are particularly Biblical.

According to Wikipedia, the idea of the nuclear family became prominent in Western Europe with the arrival of early capitalism because it was a financially viable social unit. Further, “after the Second World War the United States experienced a renewed interest in 'the home' and building family units. The family unit became a symbol of security and a return to traditional gender roles”. The popularity of the nuclear family came about, in part, through business practices of people such as Henry Ford and the policies of Franklin Roosevelt.

But outside of the West, and prior to the 20^th century, the vast majority of the world’s population have lived in a variety of set ups other than the nuclear family. Interestingly, the West is also moving away from the concept of nuclear families towards such things as blended families, binuclear families (separated spouses marrying new spouses with children), and single-parent families. “Today nuclear families with the original biological parents constitute roughly 24.1% of households” (Wikipedia).

While some may see this shift in the West as a negative thing I experience it very positively. The short period (some 100 years) that a small sector of the world’s population (Western Europe and the US) lived in nuclear family units, which originally originated due to political, ideological and economic influences, has had its pros and cons. However, to hold onto it as some sort of Biblical or Christian ideal seems it may be misguided. Its origins are not Biblical nor are its ideals.

Love, in spite of?

“God loves you in spite of who you are”. At a book discussion about The Feminine Soul we were talking about shaming messages well-intentioned people have spoken into our lives. Barbara Hillaker then mentioned the destructiveness of being told God loves her in spite of who she was. If my husband said that he loved me in spite of who I am I would feel offended and demeaned. Surely he loves me because of who I am. Surely he treasures and holds all that I am and affirms and loves that.

And God created me. God created me as I am. How could God then look at God’s own creation and say, in spite of what I made, I love this? Surely God would say, what I have made is good! Surely God would say, I have created this being wonderfully and carefully in their mother’s womb. Surely God would say because I have created something good, because of all that this created being is, I love them with an everlasting love.

We hear these messages over and over, internalize them and pass them on to others without stopping to think about what we are saying. What we are saying about God. When Jesus interacted with people one never had the sense that he was rather disappointed with who they were, a bit put off by their rottenness, disassociating himself from their true selves, but somehow loving them all the same. On the contrary, he seemed to deeply affirm them for who they were and draw them out to be more of who they were created to be.

I hope and pray that I will have the courage and boldness to live out the truth of the gospel, the good news of Jesus, that he has come to set us free from such shaming, demeaning messages that blind, cripple and imprison us, preventing us from being all he created us to be. God loves you because of all you are, all God created you to be.

Soft lavatory paper

In the Terry Pratchet movie The Color of Magic, Cohen the Barbarian is asked, after all his adventures and travels, what he would say the most treasured things in life are. He replies, "Hot water, good dentristy and soft lavatory paper". I really resonated with that on my return from Rwanda and Burundi!

Although the cold showers were bearable in the humid weather, I was shocked by stories from people in the rural parts of Burundi that rotten teeth are removed with the use of a hammer and nail and with regards to the lavatory paper, well, no complaints there but I've learnt a lot about handling a torch, a roll of toilet paper and a long drop in the dark of night!

It was truly an amazing trip which triggered a lot of half-formed ideas and latent dreams about things I might want to start doing with my life in terms of East and southern Africa, research and peace education. I'm sure all this will unfold in due course.

On the theme of travel, Arthur is covering a series of travel tips, the first is be quiet ("no need to broadcast to everyone where you flew from, that this is your first time to Africa, or what you ate for lunch"), the second is around packing light and yesterdays addition was exercise. Perhaps my tip would be to make friends. I've found that the friends I've made at airports or while on public transport have often come in handy later on in the journey, especially when traveling in East Africa! What are your travel tips?

Borra Borra

Crazily enough, Sarah and I are sitting at a luxury beach resort with the exotic name of Borra Borra with American and a British Youth for Christ volunteers, alongside the beautiful Lake Tanganyika. And there's wireless internet! Bujumbura has its perks :-). 

In the news!

An article about our event at Humura Centre (a day care centre for physially and mentally disabled children) can be found in Rwanda's most circulated English newspaper The New Times here. It includes a photo of me alongside Miss Kigali!