'Spirituality is about seeing. It's not about earning or achieving. It's about relationship rather than results or requirements. Once you see, the rest follows. You don't need to push the river, because you are already in it - and floating along!' ~Richard Rohr
We live in a world that puts a lot of attention on earning, achieving and results. It is hard to say let's do something else, when we've been constantly told it's all about doing and achieving. It very much applies to spirituality too. For many years we lived on a spirituality that put the focus on pleasing God and earning God's favour. The more prayers you said, the more masses you went to and the more novenas you said, meant you were well in with God! You were well up the ladder with God, and the more you did, the higher up you went. But in recent years fog has rolled in on the upper tiers of the ladder. The best views now are near ground level. There is a growing realisation that God is indeed to be found at ground level, in the middle of everything we do and in the middle of life itself. It is all about relationship and knowing that God is with us. This takes the pressure off us. We don't have to prove anything. It is all about knowing that God is with us on whatever journey we are on. |