(ThyBlackMan.com) People often say “I’m not religious, I am spiritual”. Just what does that mean? Why are a growing number of people so loathe to identify with religion to the deference of spirituality?
The Pew Research Center reports a 3% drop in the number of people who attend religious services at least once per week. Historically black Protestant denominations (Baptists, Methodists etc.) have seen sharp declines in attendance over the past quarter-century.
If people have stopped identifying as “religious”, then what are they identifying as?
Pew also reports that a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) now say they think of themselves as ‘spiritual’ but not religious, up 8 percentage points in five years.
The problem is the term ‘spiritual’ is vague and short on substance. Just what do people who say they are ‘spiritual’ really mean? It means different things to different people.
Life is first an inner experience, writes former Essence editor Susan L. Taylor, all the peace and security we are seeking is within us.
Here’s what ‘spiritual’ – or life in the Spirit – means to me. I define ‘spirituality’ as the sacred and devotional dimension of life that flows from direct communion with God, a communion nurtured by four elements: prayer, ritual, meditation and worship.
Prayer
Prayer is man’s greatest power! So writes the imminent W. Clement Stone. How right he was! A life nurtured by prayer is invincible; it’s holder impregnable. Prayer is the believer’s lifeline, the act that holds one steady amidst the turbulent storms of life. Much prayer much power. No prayer no power.
Ritual
A ritual is defined as a religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions according to a prescribed order. Ritual in the sense I am using it here is adopting a practice that is intended to honor a sacred belief. It could be something as simple as a hot bath with oils and candles or taking a long walk at evening.
Don’t confuse relationship with ‘ritual’. Ritual only adds to a relationship, it does not become the relationship. As Deborah Norville writes, There is a comfort in rituals, and rituals provide a framework for stability when you are trying to find answers.
Meditation
Closely aligned with ritual is meditation. Meditation is to think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting. For me, reciting mantras during meditation adds an element of trust to the meditative practice. The late Dr. Wayne Dyer recommended a form of meditation that allows us to become more introspective by visiting quiet places such as churches, museums, mountains and lakes.
Worship
Of the four dimensions of spirituality, worship is perhaps the most neglected element, especially considering the aforementioned statistics that show the decline in attendance of religious services. Spirituality, though, lacks severely without a worship component. C.S. Lewis captured it well when he wrote, A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.
Prayer, ritual, meditation and worship are all components of the spiritual life. There are many more dimensions, but to live and have our being in these four tenets lends to our feeling of connectedness to a Power higher than us.
Staff Writer; W. Eric Croomes
This talented brother is a holistic lifestyle exercise expert and founder and executive coach of Infinite Strategies LLC, a multi-level coaching firm that develops and executes strategies for fitness training, youth achievement and lifestyle management. Eric is an author, fitness professional, holistic life coach and motivational speaker.
In October 2015, Eric released Life’s A Gym: Seven Fitness Principles to Get the Best of Both, which shows readers how to use exercise to attract a feeling of wellness, success and freedom (Infinite Strategies Coaching LLC, 2015) – http://www.infinitestrategiescoaching.com.
