Well-Balanced Faith

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.-Matthew 22:37-39

I read a wonderful devotion this morning on the spiritual vs. religious debate.  Many assume you are to be one or the other.  The author of this devotion says no... you must be both. 


If we are spiritual but not religious, we are too self-centered.  We are concerned only about what we can get out of our relationship with God.  We feed on the emotional experiences of faith and our "spirituality" suffers if we don't feel it.


On the other hand, if we are religious, but not spiritual, we aren't getting the whole picture either.  We become overly concerned about theology and running of the church.  We become too institution-minded and we lack any real relationship with God.


Well-balanced faith must include our relationship with God as well as our relationship with one another... Jesus even refers to it as the greatest commandment:  Love God with all your heart, mind and soul *AND* love  your neighbor as yourself.


It's the church that provides us opportunities to love our neighbor in more practical ways... worshiping together, praying together and giving and receiving forgiveness from one another form the basis of that love for all humanity.  And then we can unite that love to reach out to the rest of the world in love.


The author of the devotion put it this way:  The source of the action (religion) is the awe (spirituality)


Lord,
Help us to pursue being both spiritual and religious as we practice our faith.  Amen.


Joys: Fun weekend with Cecelia; Daniel making supper;  writing my devotion with Cecelia on my lap and cartoons on in the background.