Faith Venture

I’ve been going through “The Congruent Life” by C. Michael Thompson. The point of the book is that your business life should be congruent (in line with) your spiritual life (or your “church” life). At the beginning of the book he ponders the spiritual life. As I’ve written before, he goes through some spiritual disciplines. But the point today is that the spiritual life is a relationship. Does your spiritual life start and stop with creeds? Thompson writes that creeds were developed to serve the spiritual life. They are words that describe the faith. It could be the Apostle’s Creed or any statement of faith. The question really is–is there life in your words?

So, how do you move beyond words to a relationship with an “invisible” being? That is where spiritual disciplines come into play. You have to prepare the ground for the seeds to be planted. Study of The Bible and other spiritual books opens your soul for a relationship. Meditation on the words deepens the the word. In this case, meditation doesn’t mean chanting a South Asian word such as “Om.” It means when you read something, you stop and think long about the wisdom you just read. You sit quietly and let the words sink in. Often you will get a “realization” about what those words mean to you at this stage in your spiritual journey. That is God talking to you. Sometimes the word that comes to you challenges you to change something in your life or to take new action. Such a thing happened to Abram when he listened to God and left his home for a foreign land. Such a thing will happen to you if you listen. I can’t believe the things I’ve done while growing from geek kid to semi-geek adult. It’s all in being open to hearing–not just repeating words and stopping there.

Gary