What Is Real Spirituality?

Eugene Peterson tells a great story of Teresa de Avila, a mystic from around the time of the Reformation. According to Peterson, Teresa is sitting in the kitchen of a convent with a roasted chicken… she has it in both hands and she’s gnawing on it, just devouring it. One of the nuns comes in shocked that she’s doing this, behaving in this way. Teresa responded to the look of dismay on the nun’s face by saying, “When I eat chicken, I eat chicken; when I pray, I pray.”

If you read anything about the saints you find that they were pretty ordinary people. They had moments of ecstasy… but, that only happened once every ten years, or so.

As long as people have the idea that Christian spirituality is some type of amazing, mystical experience we are going to be guilty of selling a lie. Christianity is a wonderful life, but not in the way that many people suppose.

In North America a great many people talk about a personal relationship with Christ. We indicate that if someone has this relationship they will experience incredible intimacy with the Creator of the universe. People look for that intimacy because the want more out of life.

In many cultures, intimacy has come to mean that we are going to get something from the other person.

Unfortunately, the intimacy that we are really talking about (or should be talking about) in Christianity is more like the intimacy that we experience in our marriages and families. It includes sacrifice, vulnerability and giving up our rights.

Peterson has said in an interview: “When we advertise the Gospel in terms of the world’s values, we lie to people…. It involves the Cross, it involves death, an acceptable sacrifice. We give up our lives.”

The Gospel of Mark communicates this message very graphically. The first half of the Gospel is Jesus showing people how to live. He is healing everybody. He reveals his authority over disease, sin and political or religious philosophies. Then, right in the middle of the Gospel account, Jesus shifts his emphasis. He starts showing people how to die. It is like He was saying, “Now that you’ve got life, I’m going to show you how to give it up.”

Don’t get me wrong. I long for those special moments with God when my fellowship with Him seems so close that doubt it could feel any closer. However, I am more and more convinced that real spirituality is found in giving up and giving in.