Spirituality and Religion: Must We Choose?

 

Dear Reader,

Today I had a conversation with a friend.

As conversations often do, ours moved through several subjects—family illness, personal concerns, experiences of life, and some of those things we carry within us that are not always easily put into words.

Yet as the conversation ended, I found myself still struggling with one subject that lingered: spirituality and religion. In all honesty, this is not a subject new to either my friend or me.

I have thought about it before. I have discussed it with others, and I believe I have even written about it before.

Yet here it was again, foremost in my mind.

Because the questions would not leave me, I began searching for a better understanding.

As I began this search, I needed to be certain that my motive was clarification—not a desire to prove that my understanding was better or more correct.

I confess, there have been times in my life when I believed spirituality and religion were almost two separate things.

Religion seemed to be about church, scripture, doctrine, commandments, worship, ordinances, traditions, and belonging to a community of believers.

Spirituality seemed much more personal. It was about my relationship with God, prayer, meditation, peace, compassion, searching for meaning, and trying to understand my place in this life.

Which is more important?

Today, through some growth in understanding and perhaps a little enlightenment, I have come to believe that I was asking the wrong question.

Religion without spirituality can become little more than going through the motions.

I can:

• Attend church.

• Read scripture.

• Pray.

• Participate in religious practices.

Each of these practices can be meaningful. Yet for me, religion that does not engage the heart or change the way I treat others becomes an empty cup, holding neither love nor compassion.

Christ spoke of this when He said:

“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”

—Matthew 15:8

Those words are uncomfortable if I allow them to become personal. It is much easier to see them as describing someone else. Yet if I allow them to describe me, then I must admit that my religion has fallen short.

So I pause.

Should I follow spirituality alone?

Perhaps I should try to become more spiritual and move away from organized religion.

Yet if I turn to spirituality alone, I am left to decide what feels comfortable. Over time, I have found that my behavior needs guidance well beyond my own desires. Without structure or community, my will can quickly become what I define as God’s will.

When I rely only upon myself:

• I begin to turn away from what is uncomfortable.

• I lose the peace I once enjoyed.

• I become less willing to forgive.

• I turn away from being of service.

• I turn my attention toward selfish concerns and away from my fellows.

Perhaps this is where spirituality and religion must begin to come together.

Religion can provide scripture, teaching, worship, fellowship, and the experience of those who have walked the road before me. Spirituality allows those things to enter the heart.

My experience has taught me that I need both: a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the strength, teaching, fellowship, and accountability of His Church.

Jesus said:

“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

—John 4:24

I am drawn to those last few words:

In spirit and in truth.

Maybe I do not have to choose between them.

Perhaps I need both.

James gives me another thought:

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction…”

—James 1:27

Here religion moves beyond the walls of a church.

• It becomes something lived.

• It becomes compassion.

• It becomes listening.

• It becomes service.

• It becomes reaching out to someone who is hurting.

And I believe that is also where spirituality becomes real.

This brings me back to the conversation that started these thoughts.

Maybe I have spent too much energy trying to decide where religion ends and spirituality begins.

What are they producing in my life?

• Am I becoming kinder?

• Am I more willing to listen?

• Am I more forgiving?

• Am I less judgmental?

• Do I look for opportunities to serve?

Am I becoming more conscious of God in the people and circumstances around me?

And most importantly: Am I becoming more willing to follow Jesus Christ?

He taught:

“By their fruits ye shall know them.”

—Matthew 7:20

The fruit is more important than the label.

I may never completely resolve within myself the discussion of spirituality versus religion.

I do not need to.

What I need is for my religion to deepen my spirituality, for my spirituality to draw me closer to God, and for both to become visible in the way I live and treat others.

In the end, I am beginning to believe that neither spirituality nor religion was ever intended simply to give me something to believe.

They were meant to help me become.

And hopefully, one day at a time, to become a little more like Christ.