If you’ve ever read the book of James, you know it’ll step on your toes. James leaves no stone unturned about what is wrong with us as humans and what God expects. During our lesson last night, we got to this verse:
“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”
James 1:27 NLT
In discussing the verse with a group I’m part of, it brought us to the topic of religion and spirituality. In light of a blog I had written prior, “You Are Losing Me,” I leaned over to my friend and whispered, “I’m just going to keep my mouth shut on this one.” She laughed and said, “I’m going to need a blog on this.” So, here I am!
I want to start by giving you the definitions from Merriam-Webster.
Religion: (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
Spirituality: the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.
As a millennial, I struggle with the understanding that the two were and should be the same thing. The longer I’ve been alive, the more I’m realizing that religion and spirituality are very different, but they shouldn’t be.
Religion, in the sense of what people see now, isn’t usually a positive thing. Religion has become an “us against them” mentality. It’s become about the institution, the rules, talking about God. That’s why so many millennials are leaving churches and focusing on their personal relationships with God. That’s what spirituality is now, because the world has taken religion out of it and made it into something else. Spirituality is about making us Godly people.
Religion and spirituality were the same to Jesus though. Spirituality WAS His religion. Now, we’ve turned religion into traditions and worldly issues. We argue with each other about whether or not things should change. We focus on the order of worship or the way communion is passed out. The spiritual aspect of religion has been stripped away.
We show up on Sunday morning, sit in our same pew, have worship in the same order, and then leave after a few hollow good mornings and how are yous, in a hurry to get to lunch at whatever restaurant.
That’s what we’ve turned religion into, but Jesus’ religion was serving, loving, and worshipping, whether it was in a home or on a mountain. Religion was who Christians were. Not a practice they did weekly.
So at some point, we’ve turned spirituality into our personal relationship with God, and taken religion out of it. Sadly. I read this quote in preparation for this post, and it struck a cord with me…
“Religion is belief in someone else’s experience. Spirituality is having your own experience.”
– Deepak Chopra
I don’t agree with that. I think God intended the two to be the one in the same. My thought… spirituality without religion is as pointless as a faucet with no water. I think religion should be like a boundary for where our spirituality can move freely within. Without religion to guide us, spirituality has no security.
In Psalm 46:10, it says, “Be still and know that I am God.” One verse to me explains what I think religion and spirituality are about. Religion is being still, spirituality is knowing God. Let me explain… Spirituality offers a relationship with God, like personal prayer, quiet study time, etc. Religion offers moral guidance, meaning, and communities to be a part of. We shouldn’t have one without the other.
It’s time we take the traditionalism out of religion and make it about God again. People have separated the two, not God. Millennials like me have the right idea. We want to see Jesus, not traditions and routines. Religion should be a verb, not a noun. I want my spirituality to be my religion, and I want God to be the center of it.
So I’ll close with this thought…
We should be spiritual and we should be religious, because we are Christians. We should have both because we’ve found stillness in knowing the God of everything.
Courtesy of: Be Salt and Light
