Spiritual but not Religious

How often have you heard someone say, I’m spiritual but I’m not religious. If I hear them right, being religious means belonging to a congregation with all the responsibilities and irritations that are part of such a relationship. I think that is sort of like saying I’m really interested in losing weight as long as I don’t have to give up eating. We live in a society that is almost paranoid about any type of commitment that restricts the options of the individual. We want the services of a government without paying for it. We want love without the encumbrance of marriage. We want to be generous on our own terms. We’d like a diet that doesn’t deny us the pleasures of food. We’d like a trim body without exercise. We’d like friends who don’t ask too much of us. And we’d like to feel connected with the universe without the messiness of relating to God who might ask something of us.

While it may be true as Genesis says that it is not good for humans to be alone, belonging to communities can be terribly messy. In community, not only are our faults on display but that is complicated by having to relate to others who are less than perfect as well. If God is real and aware of each of us, then is there any greater act of praise than being willing to put up with offensive individuals who sing off key and act hypocritically and sometimes cruelly as they gather to hear God’s voice conveyed through Scripture and words (however inadequate) and then being willing to act compassionately and with forgiveness because in doing so you reflect God who has acted similarly with you?

Perhaps none of us are the center of the universe that revolves around our thoughts and desires. Maybe if we can learn not only tolerate but appreciate those inadequate neighbors in the atmosphere of a church that keeps looking for a truth beyond them through Scripture, song, and prayer, maybe, just maybe, we can draw closer to the God who does have a slightly larger agenda than just to please us.