SPIRITUALITY


Talk Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – February 15, 2015

Centenary United Methodist Church

 

    This is an outline of the off-the-cuff remarks to young boys during their annual Cub Scout Sunday observance at Centenary.  Dick discussed why Spirituality is one of the most challenging topics to teach.  This outline was followed but delivered in age appropriate language that the boys would understand.

1.  The Problem:  People cannot prove the existence of the source from which all their responses are generated.  Dick calls this, the spirit by which people choose to live their lives while their bodies are aging.

2.  We cannot teach people much about this hidden source; we can only point to the results that come from how people have trained it through their learned emotional responses, habits and attitudes.  This motivation becomes their rudder for the rest of their lives.  This is why Jesus taught his disciples that the Kingdom of God was within them. The results of spiritual development are many and their generated results will control people's life-patterns. These patterns will only change by making a personal choice to do so. Here is a short list of results that can be experienced when one chooses loving energy patterns over all others:

·        Optimism

·        Follow-through

·        Enthusiasm

·        Compassion

·        Happiness

·        Peacefulness

·        Letting go of hurt feelings

·        Refusing to judge others because of their decisions to be who they are.

3.  Why do this? -- To add value to your life by being in control of your spirit rather than being controlled emotionally by life's numerous challenges.

·        A future employer's hiring practices:  They look for your eye contact, portraying self-confidence, being a team player, skilled at rising above the toxicity of other employees, being creative in one's responses, recognizing how to handle the responses of others in order to make relationships work.

·        Companies can teach people the skills that each needs to do most jobs, but they cannot give to them the drive to generate a compassionate spirit.  For instance:  Are you a clock-watcher, one that cannot wait for Fridays, or a person that performs every task to the best of your ability regardless of how much time it takes?

4.  No one controls the development of your spirit but YOU! 

·        Every response comes for a choice you make.

·        No one else is to blame.

·        You may feel entitled to your responses, but love does not consider choices that gratify one's need for justice to be done.

·        It is best to turn everything and everyone into your personal trainer.  If someone has the ability to make you feel angry, hurt, devastated or afraid, these are your teachers that can help you develop qualities of spirit like:  self-control, patience, understanding, letting go, preferring kindness over your need to be right.  One learns, "I will become stronger as the quality of my spirit matures."

5.  Developing your spirit is like going to the gym to develop your body.  You are developing your spiritual musculature.  Often there will be repeated failures, but you keep at it because you want better results from your spirit.

6.  The discovery of your potential inner treasure trove of enormous talents and abilities comes from your initiative and no one else's. 

7.  It is as though God said, "I have given you everything you need to become a super hero, but only you can find and develop your assets."  Not everyone wants to believe this.  Many would prefer to blame what and who they are on others or on their unique circumstances of suffering as they were growing up.  NO ONE is the captain of your ship but YOU, regardless of whether the seas during your journey were calm or stormy.

8.  All skills take practice, practice, practice!  The skill of a pianist, a karate black belt, a gymnast, an artist or a writer cannot develop in any other way.  Everything worth doing is worth doing well -- this is your task and your task alone.

9.  Everything in life is about attitude.  One person may become discouraged because of repeated failures, or that same person can choose to say, "One day, I will stand on top of that mountain."  Never allow anyone's attitude about you to become elevated above your own belief in your self-worth.  All responses coming from others are always about where they are in life and nothing more.

10.  Remember the words found in Proverbs 2:  "Young boys, listen to me.  Never forget the wisdom I am teaching you.  Look for even more of life's golden nuggetsi> with the same enthusiasm as you would while searching for a hidden treasure.  The quality of your lives will depend on how you feel, think and most of all, how you reveal yourselves through the spirit by which you live.