What Is A Spiritual Life?

What does it mean to live a spiritual life? Let me start by saying what I believe it does not mean. You are not living a spiritual life if you are self righteous and judgmental. You are not living a spiritual life if you are simply going through the motions and displaying some version of a false piety. You are not living a spiritual life if everything you do is external and for show and there is no internal conversion of your heart. You are not living a spiritual life if your heart is not getting larger. I think you are living a spiritual life if you have a sincere attitude of thankfulness and gratitude. I think you are living a spiritual life if you seek a calm mind free of anxiety, trusting in the benevolence of a loving God. I think you are living a spiritual life if you are seeking to have a pure heart full of compassion for all people. I think you are living a spiritual life if you treat everyone with kindness. I think you are living a spiritual life is you acknowledge your own failures and brokenness and can both forgive and allow yourself to be forgiven. It is not enough to simply go to church even if you do it everyday.

I read once that in every human encounter is an exchange of energy. I believe this is true. In my experience I usually feel good or bad after an exchange with another person. Some people are full of life and positive energy. When I walk away from them I feel better. Other people are draining and full of negative energy. When I walk away from them I feel like I lost a pint of blood. These experiences make me wonder how I affect others. Do people find me life giving or life draining? Do I attract people or do people avoid me? Am I someone that others want to be with or do I take the sunshine right out of their day? In the work environment we sometimes joke about "heavy maintenance" people. These are the people that always have a problem or issue. My peers and I sometimes joke that we spend 80% of our time dealing with 20% of our people. The question is this. What kind of person are you? Do you brighten other's days? Do you lift their spirits? Do you ease their pain? Are you life giving and life affirming? Do you lighten someone's load or add to it? When people see you, do they smile? Life is hard and often a struggle. Wouldn't it be so much easier and enjoyable if we competed with one another to see who could be most kind and thoughtful? Practice random acts of kindness and senseless beauty. Give more and take less. Be a ray of sunshine and not a thunderstorm full of dark clouds. Smile more and frown less. Don't make others get their exercise by running away whenever they see you coming. Make others laugh and smile.