 Spiritual: June 02, 2010 Issue [#3774] |
  Spiritual
This week: Writing About Our Spiritual Uncertainty Edited by: SophyBells  
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Hi, I'm SophyBells ~ your editor for this edition of the Spiritual Newsletter. This week we'll talk about how to express ourselves spiritually through our writing, even in the midst of our doubt and uncertainty.
The Rev. Scotty McLennan, author of the book "Finding Your Religion," compares humanity's innate need for spiritual searching to climbing a mountain. In his view, we are all endeavoring to climb the same figurative mountain in our search for the divine, we just may take different ways to get there. In other words, there is one "God," but many paths. I honor whatever path or paths you have chosen to climb that mountain in your quest for the Sacred.  |
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Embracing our Doubts and Uncertainties
Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.
Mother Teresa to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, September 1979
You are so young, so much before all beginning, and I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
Ranier Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
As I've grown older I've discovered inspiration acknowledging what I don't know rather than claiming certainty. In other words, I don't know for certain if there is a god or an afterlife, so I am content to leave it at that, rather than endlessly pursuing elusive questions. Please recognize that doesn't equate to "I don't think there is a god or afterlife." There may be, but I honestly don't know. It seems enough to confess that the Sacred is mysterious, perhaps unknowable. Thus, I am agnostic (without knowledge) about God. Is there a transcendent, creative will beyond the physical universe? I simply don't know, and it matters less to me now as I find it more valuable to experience a relationship with the Sacred than to pursue absolute truth or understanding.
I am not alone in this transformation of my faith experience. As reported in the August 23, 2007 issue of TIME Magazine, "Although perpetually cheery in public, we now know that Mother Teresa (in the book Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light lived in a state of deep and abiding spiritual pain. In more than 40 communications, many of which were never before been published, she bemoaned the 'dryness,' 'darkness,' 'loneliness' and 'torture' she was undergoing. She compared the experience to hell and at one point says it has driven her to doubt the existence of heaven and even of God."
If someone like Mother Theresa can experience doubts and uncertainty about her faith and still do the work of caring for "the least of these" with such great compassion, then how can we expect not have times of doubt and uncertainty ourselves? And perhaps it's times like these, our "dark nights of the soul," where our writing can be of benefit to our spiritual journey. Whether we keep a journal, write letters to ourselves or spiritual confidants, or pen a poem -- writing about our experiences of doubt and ambiguity can not only be a powerful spiritual exercise, but can also be a way of chronicling our faith experience, giving us something to look back on in later years. And it might also help to clear the doubts we may be uncomfortable living with (though Rilke does encourage us to love the questions in such a way as we might eventually live into the answers).
Personally I think some of my best writing (well, "best" in terms of my liking it the best) comes from experiences of doubt and uncertainty. I tend to journal or write poems during those times, and the writing is cathartic in many ways. Whether it's dealing with the illness and death of a loved one, or confusion about a relationship -- whatever it is, writing our way through it can often give us the perspective and assistance we need to work through a difficulty.
I'm sure many of you have had similar experiences with doubt, struggling with or befriending it somewhere along your own journeys. I find it very helpful to write about those times, not only to give me perspective and an opportunity for later glimpses of my past spiritual self, but also as a valuable tool to help me work my way through it. I encourage you do do the same as a valuable spiritual writing exercise. Perhaps you might share about when you first embraced doubt on your journey and how it affected you, or an example of a time doubt was a welcome friend and companion along your way.
Whatever the case, don't be afraid of doubt -- healthy doubt has resulted in amazing reformations and evolutions of faith throughout time, both individually and collectively. I know some may disagree, but experience has encouraged me to befriend it, take its hand, embrace it, and invite it to journey with me. Give it a chance and see if it enhances your own experience. If you do write something to share with us, please pass it on to me for inclusion in my July edition of the Spiritual newsletter.
SophyBells |
Below you'll find some offerings from other WDC members about spiritual doubt and uncertainty. Some eschew doubt in favor of uncertainty, a few struggle with doubt, and others live with the uncertainty as part of their spiritual journey. Please let the folks know if you read their piece by leaving a thoughtful comment or review.
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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Now for a few comments about my last newsletter about the importance (and spirituality) of passion/zeal in our lives:
From From Katya the Poet 
Very zealous!
Indeed!
    
From From Christine Cassello 
I was late in realizing my passion was for writing and my subject was helping people understand and accept themselves for being who God made them rather than trying to fit into someone else's image or what they thing they would rather be. I like this article. What did you say for X?
So glad you enjoyed the article, and very glad you reached (and shared) your realization. Be who we are -- that's all we can do and be true to ourselves.
I haven't done X yet -- it's quite a ways down in the alphabet. But I'll give you a preview. X is for Mystery in the Spiritual Literacy Alphabet.
From From Kate - Writing & Reading 
Greetings, an impassioned newsletter and inspiring selections to read = challenging us to engage the nascent passion, be it writing, drawing, building, science, cooking, gardening, etc, etc-how can a dispassionate person, trolling through his/her days, show real compassion (wordsmithing here ~ Engage the passion with zeal and Write On!
Thank you for your wise words -- glad you enjoyed the newsletter! 
Please keep your comments and suggestions coming, they are greatly appreciated!
Until next time! SophyBells
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