Spirituality and the Spirituality Of Preaching

I finished a course today called "The Spirituality of Preaching." It was a week long intensive and a part of my Doctor of Ministry program, which - God willing - I will complete with graduation in May of 2013. The course started me thinking about spirituality in general and not just the spirituality of preaching, although for me, given my vocation as a preacher, the latter and the former are hard to differentiate.

I've always thought of spirituality as being in terms of relationships - our relationship with God and our relationship with one another and how those two things inform each other. One thing the course has reminded me of is that spirituality is an inner thing as well. That "inner thing" (because I can't think of any better way to describe it) is about my relationship with or connectedness with God, but it's both more and less than that I think. It's about inner health, having life in balance, keeping things in perspective, not allowing oneself to be overwhelmed by the challenges and complexities of life while at the same time realizing that some things (and maybe many things) are surely going to overwhelm us. That inner spirituality has to do with those practices that we use to keep ourselves feeling centred in and connected to God. As God constantly reaches out to us, our spiritual life is our attempt to reach back. Prayer, devotional reading, meditation, Scripture reading and study, quiet time - all are spiritual practices and, I have to be honest, in the light of this course I realize that I'm nowhere near as "good" at any of these things as I need to be. Which, I suppose, is why I need to be constantly thankful for God's grace which never leaves me even when I allow my connectedness to God to slip every now and then.

A colleague preached in class today about Paul's "thorn in the flesh" from 2 Corinthians. One point he made very well is that since Paul never identified what his thorn in the flesh was, there's no way we can let ourselves off the hook by saying "I don't have that problem!" Pastors as much as anyone have their own thorns in the flesh that we struggle with. I won't identify mine. The struggles are internal and personal. Mine are mine, to deal with God with. But in a way it's good to have our own thorns in the flesh. They are a continual reminder to us that we need to try to stay connected to God. May I learn to be continually better at that task!