Have you heard a distinction drawn between religion and spirituality? Consider those who pressed the charges against me to deliver me up to death. They hesitated to approach Pilate lest they should be defiled and therefore ineligible to celebrate the Passover. They were in a hurry to condemn the Lord of Glory so they could get on with their celebration. They were very diligent in performing their religious practices. Obviously they were missing the real significance of these events. You would be correct in saying that this is an extreme example, but have your religious practices ever interfered with your spirituality?

Do you wish you had time for a spiritual life? You do. Many people assume that you can only do this if you have an abundance of leisure time that you are free to structure yourself. Do you feel that your own life is hectic and demanding in comparison? You do have some influence over the pace of your life, but you have real demands as well. Don’t be discouraged. I will come to you disguised as the life you currently lead. So it isn’t so much a matter of trying to escape your current life as listening to see what I am saying to you in the midst of it, and how I am using your current circumstances to complete my work in you.

An ancient mystic said, God is within us, but we are outside of ourselves. Do you consider self-alienation to be a serious problem? Would you be aware of it if it were? I pronounced woes on the Pharisees publicly for being blind guides. Then others inquired of me if they were blind also. Does this strike you as an odd question? I told them that if they claimed to see their blindness would remain. Does this seem like an odd answer? Yet I spoke the truth. What can you learn from this? Hold your beliefs with humility and don’t be afraid to revisit them, for now you know in part, and I have more to teach you.

Is it important to you to be right all the time? Yet you realize this is an unrealistic goal. If you can’t be right all the time, then at least you can improve the quality of your errors. Have you ever made critical judgments of others that turned out to be false? Is this a greater embarrassment and cause for remorse than giving people favor and the benefit of the doubt and being wrong for doing that? As much as you would like to render prefect judgment, only I am capable of doing that. Do you think that I err on the side of mercy and grace? Is this a judgment of you or me? As long as you know in part resolve to let your errors be on the side of love and grace.