Spiritual Growth: the Spiritual Challenge of Today’s Times

by Todd Gaster 

To grow spiritually in a world defined by strength, money, and influence is a Herculean task. Today's conveniences such as electronic toys, gadgets, and tools as well as entertainment through television, magazines, and the web have lead us to restrict our attention mostly to physical needs and desires. In the end, our ideas of self-worth and self-meaning are muddled. How can we strike a balance between the material and spiritual aspects of our lives?

To grow spiritually is to focus inside.

Introspection goes beyond recalling the things that happened in a day, week, or month. You must look closely and examine your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motivations. Occasionally examining your experiences, the decisions you make, the friends you have, and the things you do provide useful insights on your life goals, on the good traits you must grow and the bad traits you have to get rid of. Moreover, it gives you ideas on how to act, react, and conduct yourself in the midst of any situation. Like any skill, introspection can be learned; all it takes is the courage and willingness to look for the truths that rest inside you. Here are some pointers when you introspect: be objective, be forgiving of yourself, and focus on your areas for improvement.

To grow spiritually is to develop your potentials.

Religion and science have differing views on matters of the human spirit. Religion views people as spiritual beings temporarily existing on Earth, while science views the spirit as just a single dimension of an individual. Mastery of the self is a recurring theme in both Christian (Western) and Islamic (Eastern) teachings. The needs of the body are known but placed under the needs of the spirit. Beliefs, values, morality, rules, experiences, and good works provide the blueprint to ensure the growth of the spiritual being. In Psychology, realizing one's full potential is to self-actualize. Maslow discovered several human needs: physiological, security, belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence. James earlier categorized these needs into three: material, emotional, and spiritual. When you have satisfied the basic physiological and emotional needs, spiritual or existential needs come next. Obtaining each need leads to the ultimate development of the person. Maybe the difference between these two religions and psychology is the end of self-development: Christianity and Islam see that self-development is a means toward serving God, while psychology view that self-development is an end by itself.

To grow spiritually is to search for meaning.

Religions that believe in the existence of God such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam suppose that the purpose of the human life is to serve the Creator of all things. Several theories in psychology propose that we ultimately give meaning to our lives. Whether we believe that life's meaning is already set for us or we set it ourselves, to grow in spirit is to understand that we do not merely exist. We do not know the meaning of our lives at birth; but we gain knowledge and wisdom from our interactions with people and from our actions and reactions to the situations we are in. As we learn this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values that we reject and affirm. Our lives have purpose. This purpose takes all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potential into use; picks us up during trying times; and gives us something to reach for---a goal to achieve, a destination to look forward to. A person without purpose or meaning is like a drifting ship at sea.

To grow spiritually is to understand interconnections.

Religions stress the concept of our relatedness to all creation, live and not living. So we call other people "brothers and sisters" even when there are no obvious blood relations. Moreover, deity-centered religions such as Christianity and Islam speak of the relationship between humans and a higher being. On the other hand, science relies on our link to other living things through the evolution theory. This relatedness is clearly seen in the concept of ecology, the interaction between living and non-living things. In psychology, connectedness is a characteristic of self-transcendence, the biggest human need according to Maslow. Understanding your connection to all things makes you more humble and respectful of people, animals, plants, and things in nature. It makes you appreciate everything around you. It encourages you to go beyond your comfort zone and lend a hand to other people, and become helpers of all other things around you.

Growth is a journey. Thus to grow in spirit is a day-to-day process. We gain ground we lose ground, but the important thing is that we learn, and from this understanding, greater spiritual growth is made possible.

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1466177