Spirituality for Busy People
Background

Our Goals for the Program: (Based on John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Movement)
• To meet God, not just to know about God.
• To have God accompany
us each step of the journey of life.
• To encounter God with our whole being. When head and heart unite, our hands have to get involved.
• To experience the central meaning of the Christian faith: the unmerited love of God called Grace.
• To have a changed life. When grace is experienced at a deep level, the transformation of life occurs.

Guiding Principles of Spirituality for Busy People:
• God is present in all places. God's "breath" is breathed into all of creation (John 3:8) All things, people, are respected because of the Emgo Dei. The spiritual task is to discern the divine everywhere.
• God is accessible. The spiritual task is to remove whatever keeps us from God.
• Each person is inclined to find God primarily in one of four ways, through mind, heart, soul, or strength. The spiritual task is to find a personal harmony of these four.
• Each person has a created place in the universe. You fit. The spiritual task is to find out "where" and in what form.
• Grace abounds. "God's goodness is planted more deeply than all that is wrong." (The Iona Community). The spiritual task is to open our eyes to see God's goodness. The challenge is to experience God as "the One who first loved us."
• Life is a journey, not a destination. God accompanies us each step of the way. The spiritual task is to be open to the Spirit's leading.
• Life is a mystery to be enjoyed, not a problem to be solved (Thomas Moore). The spiritual task is to foster experiences, such as art, which are multi-dimensional.
• Christianity can't be lived in isolation. The spiritual task is to find suitable partners for the journey.

"We are made in God's image, befriended by Christ, and empowered by the Spirit" (Iona)

Other Factors to Consider:
• Each person has both male and female qualities which need strengthening and balancing.
• It is good to have a "place of resurrection" for one's meditation time. Choose a "sacred place" in which to meditate.
• Look for God in the traditional places, i.e., the elements, fire, water, air, electricity, ground, light/dark. Find God in all of your sensations-seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, feeling, perceiving, thinking.
• For Crystal Springs Church, the use of the images of trees and crystal clear water helps us focus.
• Consider the patterns and cycles you have created as keys to your spiritual temperament.
• Know you are responsible for what happens to you.
• Life has two levels-activities on the outer level, and attitudes on the inner level. Spirituality is the uniting of the two into a harmonious whole. Thus, we need to look inward as well as outward.
• "Contemplation" is paying "loving attention to God," or, "Praying without ceasing" as Saint Paul admonishes.

Some definitions:
"Soul" is that in us that sees the "bigger picture" and gives an overall sense to life and a feeling of depth. It is not a thing, but a quality of experiencing life. Some of the aspects of soul: Subtlety, complexity, ripening, worldliness, incompleteness, ambiguity, wonder." (Care of the Soul, P. 247))

"Spirituality" is an attempt to attend to the invisible factors in life and to transcend the personal, concrete, finite particulars of this world. (Care of the Soul, P. 232). Generally, spiritual practices tend try to make sense of our being just one of 6 billion people-like the grains of sand on a beach-as well as being a unique, never to be repeated, special human individual. The spiritual journey combines the reality of being one among many (humility) with the reality of being the only among many (gifted). (Paul Sweet)

"Contemplation" is the time when one stops being pre-occupied with one's own concerns and lets another person (God) take up our attention. It is a time of finding out that you are loved for who you are and not for something you try to be.