Earlier this week I was called spirtually ungrounded by one of the very few people whose opinion on spirituality I value. Initially I bristled at what I considered an unfair charge, but then on reflection I realized that it was true. While I’m not sure I agree with that person’s idea of what it means to be spiritually grounded (it’s not a subject we’ve discussed enough in the past and I’m not sure it’s one she’s comfortable discussing in the future), even by my own measure, she had a point. In pondering the subject and following the news over the past several days, I felt myself moved to rail against the spiritual ungrounding that I see afflicting this country, if not the world as a whole. But, well, I’m not sure I can describe the problem with doing that any better than Jesus did, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:5)”
First off, let me say that I consider being spiritually grounded to mean, very simply, that a person’s chosen religion or system of belief forms the basis for all choices, actions, and words put forth by said person. (Yes, my syntax in this post will be the sort that makes Hemingway’s nostril hairs spontaneously combust. Deal with it.) At times I think that has described me, but it’s been a while since that was true. I could claim that the massive change in my beliefs over the past seven months has left me on uncertain footing, unable yet to build properly from such a new foundation. That would be nothing more than a nearly worthless excuse though. (No excuse is truly worthless in that it can reveal something about about the person who uses it. This excuse has a little more worth than that even, but I’ll get to that later.)
The truth about the truth of why I’ve been ungrounded of late is that I’m not certain what it is. I’ve not yet come to a conclusion; a conclusion which would then allow me to make a correction. Just in starting to write all of this out though, an answer has begun to glimmer forth from the darkness of my confusion. With the goal of getting those few people who actually read this blog to actually read all of this, I’m going to serialize it instead of slapping it up on the page in one massive 1000+ word piece. So this is the end for the moment. The next part will hopefully find it’s way up here tomorrow.
I think that, no matter in what tradition in which you find yourself (or don’t), you should do a systems check, every once in a while. Eventually you start to notice yourself coming unfocused, and tak steps to correct it.
Good luck.