Finding God Without Religion!

I got in touch recently with two women who were dear to my heart when I was a young professional woman, living in Illinois. We worked in Corporate Communications for the same insurance and financial company, and Cindy and I were roommates, sharing a beautiful cottage in Barrington for more than a year before I moved away to live and work in Connecticut. Carol, our friend, was always just that: our friend.

I was glad to have made contact with Cindy and Carol. As we caught up on the happenings in our lives in the last one to two decades, it was good to know that despite our disparate walks in life, we were all moving on the same path...seeking Spirit within.

I was not surprised that both my friends had found their own spiritual oasis: Carol leads week-long and 10-day hikes to various beautiful and scenic venues across the country, and Cindy finds spirituality and tranquility walking around the 100 acres of nature in her Ohio backyard.

When I look back, Carol was always the ”spiritual” one among us. Even as a young woman, she examined her every step for its rightness or wrongness. And both Cindy and I recently realized that she’d found a reason to gift each of us, at different times, with her then favorite book: “Gifts of the Sea” by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It then is no surprise to know that Carol is now an active member in the Lutheran church in her local community.

As I reflect on the many other individuals I’ve met along the way, this, I know is true: some of the nicest people I’ve known went to church often. Then again, as I look back, some of the nicest and best people I’ve known never went to any church or subscribed to any religious beliefs. They are people, like my ex-roommate Cindy, who breathe and live spirituality each and every day in every way!

Yet, we all can point to individuals who claim to be “religious” but in their behavior pose the most challenge for all the people around them.

This should tell us this: sitting in a church pew has little to do with whether someone connects or not to the Spirit within them. A more reliable indicator is the quality of interactions people have day by day.

People with big hearts don’t need religion and church to guide them. They simply follow the spirit within, often not recognizing the source for their compulsion to do right and to do good.

In a recent interview with Unity Magazine, Susan L. Taylor, the former editorial director at Essence Magazine, said this about her husband: “Spiritually, Khephra is light years ahead of me. He doesn’t seem to have the neurotic and existential conflicts most of us are working to resolve. He doesn’t yearn for material things, has his ego in check, and hardly ever complains....

“Khephra lives love. But don’t look for him in church or in any organized religious setting.”

Religion and churches do not have exclusive rights to God and God consciousness. Those are the inalienable rights given to each individual at the time of birth! To make claim to that relationship, though, we must diligently seek to connect through our own actions and efforts to stay “plugged in.”

The question then becomes: Does going to church help us stay plugged in?

Of course it does!

But before making an arbitrary decision to go to church, the more important questions we should ask ourselves are these: How is my heart towards other people? Do I feel connected to the Spirit within me? Do I really know who I am? Do I know my purpose for being here?

I believe that religion serves a very strong and good purpose in our lives. It helps us to uncover the ways to walk in the world in the tradition of the great spiritual people who have walked before us. There are examples of these great people to point to in every religion.

Going to church also serves the purpose of lifting people’s “spirit” and once that gets lifted, then connection to God and God Consciousness becomes easier. Prayer, too, lifts the spirit, raising people to a higher level of consciousness, where many solutions lie.

Religion also plays an important role when people are going through the dark night experiences. That’s when hearing about Jesus, the Buddha, Mohammad, Saint Francis, and other spiritual leaders and their trials can provide some comfort.

Choosing to attend church or going the journey alone is an individual choice. Many who are consciously aware of God as their moment-by-moment partner may never feel a need to attend church services, and then if they do, it may simply be to celebrate Spirit with others.

Those who are not aware of God, the consciousness and movement of God, in their lives probably may never feel the need to attend church. Their lives are fine, and will be fine, anyway. Then there are those who are unaware of God, but who begin to be disturbed by the stirring of their souls. That’s when they may choose to begin a search...in a church...or within their own souls.

I try to go to church, Christian services, as often as I feel called to do so, then mostly to celebrate with like-minded individuals. But whether I’m in a Buddhist or Hindu Temple, a Jewish synagogue or a Muslim mosque, I’d like to think that I’d feel God’s presence just the same: I’d be home with Spirit!

Like the wonderful Gifts of Spirit my friends Cindy and Carol shared so freely with me so many years ago, Spirit is eternal, everlasting and...oh...ever so present!

Namaste’,

Che’