Practical Spirituality May Seem Unrealistic

My last column should have come with a warning label: “Practical spirituality can be impractical for your mental health.”

Most people probably use common sense to connect “practical” spirituality. At least I’m prone to lean that way.

However, we may forget that such practicality often results from being open to the use of uncommon sense.

For example, imagine we’re at Sunday’s Super Bowl in San Diego. Just before kickoff we see a group of men gathered at midfield. Let’s eavesdrop on their conversation:

“Jesus, you’ve got to be kidding,” one man says. “How are we going to feed all of these people. There has to close to 60,000 people here!”

To which Jesus calmly shouts across the huddle of disciples, “Look at the stuff we’ve gathered just among ourselves. I’m sure we’ll have enough to share with all these starving people.”

Absurd to the max, right? Not only my Super Bowl silliness, but also Jesus’ outrageous presumption that five loaves of bread and a few fish can feed 4,000, 5,000 or even 7,000 people sitting on the hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

Still, the story has persisted over the centuries. Why? In part because, from a totally impractical beginning, the story attests to a miracle of practical good work for and through God’s people.

It draws us into the arena of uncommon sense, where practical acts of spiritual kindness and justice are born out of someone deciding that “business as usual” is no longer good business, even if only for that single moment.

Consider the impracticality of intuition: Too many people dismiss intuition as wishful thinking, or something akin to astrological superstition. But I know from testing my own intuitive nudges that good often happens when I listen to impractical impulses.

I became an ardent listener to my own intuition nearly 20 years ago. Instead of visiting a hospitalized church member in the afternoon, as I had planned, I was moved to drop by to see him that morning.

What I found was his panicked wife alone in the cardiac care unit, not knowing what to do, while the CCU team urgently tried to save her husband, who had suffered a heart attack.

By being there at the right time, I was able to calm her a little and then call her daughter, who hurried to the hospital.

Although that’s my most dramatic example, there have been many times when obeying my intuition meant being available to someone at a crucial time. There have also been times when listening intuitively doesn’t mean much of anything in practical terms.

I may feel foolish at times, but I still listen.

Consider the impracticality of dreams.

One of the most famous in our lifetime is the dream Martin Luther King proclaimed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.

He dreamed the impractical vision of racial equality where content of character was more important than the color of a person’s skin.

Much of his dream has yet to be realized. His dream is all but forgotten by some, but it’s remembered by so many.

The immediate impracticality of King’s vision is being transformed, if ever so slowly, by the daily struggle for practical equality in the near and distant future.

Lastly, consider the impracticality of ordinary acts of practical spirituality.

I received wonderful, simple responses to my last column’s question: “How is your faith practical on a daily basis?”

What is practical to some would seem highly impractical to others. (“Oh, I could never do that!” some would claim.)

One reader spoke of his work with developmentally disabled people this way: “Whenever I changed diapers for a DD client with Down syndrome, or became the sight of a blind patient, Matthew 25:40 is being lived out.” (Feel free to check out Matthew for yourself.)

Sometimes we may struggle with being gracious or hospitable to those with whom we passionately disagree. To be gracious may even be so difficult as to be impractical for us.

Another reader reminds us: “Applying my theology means approaching each person with a degree of respect that allows them to share their life and receive the attention from another human being that they deserve.”

Or, how about those mundane times when doing what seems “right” is so commonplace that we are truly unaware of the practical benefits of our actions? It’s just something we do.

One reader spoke quite unassumingly, maybe even impractically: “My works all start inwardly and usually get expressed in very small, seemingly insignificant actions, like telling the truth when it would be easier to tell a white lie, or apologizing when the person doesn’t expect it, or simply eating this thing instead of that thing.”

We don’t need to dream big dreams or become involved in dramatic situations to live out momentarily impractical spirituality with longer-term practical results. We simply need to live our daily moments as compassionately, as justly, as respectfully, as faithfully, as … (choose your own adverb) as possible.

Our loaves and fishes are meager fare to us. But share them and let God work the miracle.

Then stand back and be delightfully amazed at how nourished are you and the people you touch.

xxxx

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Paul Graves The Spokesman-Review