As promised, here's the second part of my Christmas post. P.S. Alex was not one who said these posts were too long. My bad.
My family's church has an evening Christmas eve church service every year. This is one thing that I always loved about my church growing up. I'd get a brand new pretty dress, look at the lights on all the houses on the way to the church, walk into the church through a path lit by luminaries, and listen to and sing Christmas carols. The grand finale was when the lights would dim to nearly darkness and everyone would pass a flame from candle to candle until the whole church was lit by candlelight while singing Silent Night.
This year, because my sister is in the bell choir at church, Alex and I went for the Christmas eve service to watch her perform. And although religion is not for me (a well thought out decision, trust me) there's something about getting together in a beautiful setting and talking about kindness towards one another that moves me.
I remember in elementary school learning about a "well being triangle". This triangle consisted of three points: physical well being, emotional well being, and spiritual well being. The triangle had to be an equilateral triangle for overall well being. Physical and emotional well being are pretty straight forward, but I've struggled to figure out the spiritual point. People with religion have it pretty easy. The belief of a greater being is the most common form of spirituality and there are many ways of fulfilling that point of the triangle with this belief. People like me, however, can have a harder time figuring it out.
The definition of spirituality on Wikipedia (very trustworthy, I know) is the following:
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality;[1] an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.”[2] Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop an individual's inner life; spiritual experience includes that of connectedness with a larger reality, yielding a more comprehensive self; with other individuals or the human community; with nature or the cosmos; or with the divine realm.[3] Spirituality is often experienced as a source of inspiration or orientation in life.[4] It can encompass belief in immaterial realities or experiences of the immanent or transcendent nature of the world.
Many people who do not have a religion find spirituality in things such as nature, community work, even drugs. Where is this going, you ask? While I was sitting in that Christmas eve church service listening to the minister talk about loving one another and caring for those less fortunate, while watching a girl that I sang with in a youth group when I was younger now leading the children in the church choir in song, while watching my sister proudly play her bells, and while sitting in silence in the candle lit sanctuary at the end, I decided I wanted something more in my life. I want to be able to join in a congregation of people with spirituality similar to mine. Instead of worship, I want to get together and enjoy the greatness of nature. I want to get together and talk about loving one another, talk about improving the community. I want somewhere to go where my children can sing and foster their confidence and talk about the good in life instead of seeing all the bad. I want to show everyone that a congregation of people who follow no god can do good in the community. Big dreams, I know, but my triangle is not equilateral and I can feel the affects.
If anyone out there agrees with me and/or would be willing to be a part of this kind of congregation, please comment.
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