It’s Good Friday, a day meant for reflection if there ever was one. I’m still digesting all the wisdom in The Congruent Life by C. Michael Thompson, and this sentence hit me like the proverbial brick. “The spiritual life is more concerned with relationship than creed.”
We have a creed about Good Friday, (“suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried”). The church my wife was a member of growing up in suburban Detroit taught that you shouldn’t “say” the Lord’s Prayer. They also didn’t recite the Apostles’ Creed. They taught that prayers “should come from the heart.” But they also had creeds–“I believe in the Bible” for example. The reason I bring this up is not to make fun of Baptists, but to point out how hard it is to enter the spiritual life as a relationship with God, and a relationship with Jesus who shows us the way to God, without slipping into the complacency of repeating creeds–often called “empty” words.
When you pray this weekend, make an effort to put your mind and attitude into one of seeking a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Make It part of you, you part of It. Don’t think of today as a set of words from the Apostles’ Creed, but seek a relationship with Jesus, who died for us. But come Sunday we also remember that he became alive again, also for us. That’s another relationship. Same person, different experiences. Jesus will go with us from the depths of our depressions to the heights of our spiritual lives. That’s a relationship worth nurturing.
Gary Mintchell
Tags: Christianity, religion, spirit
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