Spirituality is....Getting It

“I’ve defined myself, all my life, by what I was against. I fought against everything, but more and more I worry that I was never for anything. Oh, I can criticize and complain and judge everything, but where does that get me? Rebelling isn’t rebuilding. Ridicule isn’t replacing. My generation! All we did was make fun of the way the world was. We didn’t make it any better. We spent so much time judging what other people created we didn’t create anything of our own. We took the world apart, but had no idea what to do with the pieces.”

                             Ida Mancini in Choke, by Chuck Palahnuik

 Today at church during a lively children's sermon the speaker was talking about Jesus telling the woman at the well she could have "living water."  He carefully, and cheerfully, walked the thin, razor-sharp highwire made by the stringing of metaphors between small children still in their literal age.  In trying to explain that the woman didn't understand what Jesus was saying, he sought to show that people in our time, having the advantage of knowing the whole gospel story, understood it better.  What he said was, "She didn't understand what Jesus meant. But we have the benefit of "getting it."

I have thought about that sentence ever since he said it. (Proof once more that I am much better suited to learning from the children's sermon than the adult one. Not a surprise, really...). "We have the benefit of "getting it."   All day the question has nagged me.  Maybe -  when you look at a world in so much need and a church (universal) still struggling with science, acceptance, and how to reach outside the circle of the secluded saved, -  the same question nags you too:

Are we?
Are we "getting it?"

Another text in the Bible shows an exasperated Jesus encountering legalism and posing the same question. 

Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. "Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. The second one married the widow but he died also, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all the woman died too. At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her.

Jesus replied, "Are you in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry or be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising - have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, "I am the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are badly mistaken."
                               Mark 12:18-27 (NIV)

 Jesus asks them -- Are you in error (are you not "getting it") because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God? In other words: Are you people ignorant or unbelieving? 

A professor once taught me that if you want to truly get the feel of a scripture - write it out by hand and see how you interact with the words.  I tried that with this scripture, grabbing my trusty fountain pen and writing it into my journal.  I noticed two things right off:

1.  What a long question!
2.  What a stupid question.

Jesus seems to notice both the length and stupidity of the query in his grumpy response, concluding - "You are badly mistaken".  Personally, of all the things I want to hear Jesus say to me, "You are badly mistaken" is NOT on the list.  What are their mistakes? Why aren't they "getting it?"

They, like Ida Mancini, are too busy ridiculing to gain any real knowledge.  They don't believe in resurrection, and they probably don't spend a lot of time caring about who is married to anyone. The ludicrous scenario is intended to make fun of the idea that we live on after we die.  They were not willing to learn. They were, in fact, ignorant.

They also were practicing what we know as "confirmation bias" - the psychological phenomenon that says we only give authority or acceptance to ideas that confirm what we already think instead of accepting something that might change or broaden our reality. They didn't want to believe in the power of God to carry our souls through death to life. They were, in fact, unbelieving.

 

Spirituality - "getting it" - is that act of leaving both of those qualities behind. It's easy to think of pithy questions and outrageous scenarios to question faith, hope or God. Like the always popular, "If God is all powerful, can God make an object so heavy that God cannot lift it?"   (My answer:  "Stop it."). Ridicule isn't replacing and logic traps don't make anyone brighter, better, or more hopeful.  Being a spiritual being is having the capacity to learn, and interact honestly with people, scripture and God.

Spirituality is also the willingness to confront our confirmation bias (we all have it - its connected to our ego - and what do we remember about ego?  E.G.O. -- Everybody's Got One).  When you realize you are drawn only to things that support what you think or what you think you think - stop and give other thoughts a chance. It doesn't mean you have to believe something just because its different.Rebelling isn't rebuilding. But it does mean a conscious effort to really consider ideas will give you more tools and more chances to be "getting it."

Finally, be energized and excited by the fact that while spiritual people are "getting it" - no one on this earth - has "got it."  Spirituality is a journey of learning, changing, praying and hope.  It is about rebuilding, and it is about replacing. It is about revelation, and re-creation.  No one gets to sit on the platform of "I got it all figured out" (and you should be highly suspicious of anyone who tries).  So do not worry about how near or far you think you are from "getting it" - just keep listening, learning, and loving.