Spirituality Leads Us into the World

“The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.” - Henri Nouwen

We operate in dualities. Good versus evil. Physical versus spiritual. Dark versus light. Dualism teaches that there are two main realities of equal power that are opposites and are working against one another. This is an old way of thinking about how life works but it is not a biblical notion.

In the Bible, God is all there is before the creation. There is no opposing force. There is no cosmic battle. God simply is. With the creation, he breathes into existence the entire universe and declares it to be good. Still, no evil counter balance to God’s goodness. But, you know the story, the serpent, the fruit, Adam and Eve reject God’s leadership, and something in the universe gets broken, sending sin spiraling down through history.

Today, many in the church mistake the reality of sin as a cosmic power that opposes God. This would require sin to be a person, to have a will. Only an entity with a will can choose to work against another entity. But the Bible is clear that though many of God’s creatures have rebelled against him and his leadership, fallen angels and fallen humans, still, God is in complete control and he is working out his ultimate purposes for people and indeed the entirety of creation.

When I am “spiritual,” as Nouwen remarks in the quote above, I am led deeper into the world God created. I get more in touch with that world because the world, as messed up as it can be, is the object of God’s love (John 3:16). Christian holiness does not lead to a physical separation from the world. If it did, the Incarnation could never have occurred and we would all be lost. Instead, holiness draws us deeper in love with God and deeper in love with the things he loves. What is God calling you to do to reveal his love to the world?