Spiritual Growth: The Spiritual Challenge Of Modern Times

You may be asking yourself "what has spiritual growth got to do with self improvement?". It was a question which I asked myself when I first got involved in self improvement studies. I soon learnt that spiritual growth is very important to self improvement.

To grow spiritually in a world defined by power, money, and influence is a Herculean task. Modern conveniences such as electronic equipments, gadgets, and tools as well as entertainment through television, magazines, and the web have predisposed us to confine our attention mostly to physical needs and wants. As a result, our concepts 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 look inward

Introspection goes beyond recalling the things that happened in a day, week, or month. You need to look closely and reflect on your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motivations. Periodically examining your experiences, the decisions you make, the relationships you have, and the things you engage in provide useful insights on your life goals, on the good traits you must sustain and the bad traits you have to discard. Moreover, it gives you clues 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 seek the truths that lie within 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 living on Earth, while science views the spirit as just one 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 recognized 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 identified 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. Achieving each need leads to the total development of the individual.

Perhaps 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.

I'm dealing with some rather "heavy" ideas here. Don't rush through this article. Take your time reading it. You'll get more out of it that way.

To grow spiritually is to search for meaning

Religions that believe in the existence of God such as Christianism, 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 pre-determined or self-directed, to grow in spirit is to realize 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 discover this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values that we reject and affirm.

Our lives have purpose. This purpose puts all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials into use; sustains us during trying times; and gives us something to look forward to---a goal to achieve, a destination to reach. A person without purpose or meaning is like a drifting ship at sea.

To grow spiritually is to recognize interconnections

Religions stress the concept of our relatedness to all creation, live and inanimate. Thus we call other people “brothers and sisters” even if there are no direct 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 expounds 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 highest human need according to Maslow.

Recognizing 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 moves you to go beyond your comfort zone and reach out to other people, and become stewards of all other things around you.

Growth is a process thus to grow in spirit is a day-to-day encounter. We win some, we lose some, but the important thing is that we learn, and from this knowledge, further spiritual growth is made possible.

I hope that your reading about spiritual growth was both enjoyable and educational for you. Your learning process should be ongoing. The more you understand about any subject, the more you will be able to share with others.

• Jewish cemetery a sign of growth
  
  With services for the Jewish New Year set to start Wednesday night, Beth Cohen has been thinking about what's new for the Seaside Jewish Community in Rehoboth Beach.
  


• It's Happening Here: Grief, hospice break-out session at conference
  
  Hospice of Southern Illinois will participate in the annualSouthern Illinois Women's Health Conference at John A.Logan College. The conference reaches hundreds of women each yearwith information on physical, emotional and spiritual health.
  


• The Gospel of Wealth
  
  The betrayal of the age of excess has made us hungry for a new code reconciling material and spiritual longings.
  


• Bold blows vs corruption, cautious steps vs poverty
  
  BENIGNO Simeon ‘Noynoy’ C. Aquino III became the Philippines’ 15th president on June 30, 2010 or exactly 70 days ago, triggering a contagion of hopefulness among Filipinos. He wooed and won votes with a slogan that was simple, yet catchy: �Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.� Without corruption, there’d be no poverty. The second Aquino presidency has spread a virus of hope that finds sole ...
  


• Muslims will become majority in Europe, senior Vatican official warns
  
  European Christians must have more children or face the prospect of the continent becoming Islamised, a senior Vatican official has said.
  


• Language and the Socialist-Calculation Problem
  
  Language policy is a perfect example of the socialist-calculation problem. Governments necessarily adopt nonoptimal language policies. They are incentivized to violate the rights of minority-language speakers and support fewer languages rather than more.
  


• Hanover Tea party gains steam
  
  Sandwiched between a public library and a fleet of public-works trucks, a teacher and a plumber stood sweating under a restaurant's swirling ceiling fans, stoking a "brushfire of freedom."
  


• MAO’S LAST DANCER: Three stars - Powerful
  
  This autobiographical tale by Cunxin Li not only describes his own journey to freedom but that of China’s as well.
  


• Glenn Beck and MLK
  
  *Like the historic original in 1963, Glenn Beck’s commemorative march on Washington has produced a clash of perception. Marchers celebrated rather than besieged the capital, and sweet piety floated above tribal antagonisms. Responses of disbelief have mingled once again with giddy, puzzled surprise. This time, by embracing the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther [...]
  


• As the Spirit Moves Me: Chatfield's United Methodist Church continues to grow
  
  Longtime friend and school teacher Dan Carlson shared the story that moved me into the history of Chatfield's United Methodist Church that was established in 1856, just three years after Chatfield was officially incorporated. Dan told me there's sudden new growth from the little folks' interest in daily Vacation Bible School.