Spiritual Life Encourages Us to Take Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This has been a challenging and difficult summer, filled with painful news from around the world. We can talk face to face with people\u00a0on the other side\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/08\/16\/spiritual-life-encourages-us-take-heart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spiritual Life Encourages Us to Take Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This has been a challenging and difficult summer, filled with painful news from around the world. 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{"id":9906,"date":"2014-08-16T04:40:31","date_gmt":"2014-08-16T11:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.strategicmonk.com\/?p=9906"},"modified":"2014-08-16T04:40:31","modified_gmt":"2014-08-16T11:40:31","slug":"spiritual-life-encourages-us-take-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/08\/16\/spiritual-life-encourages-us-take-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Life Encourages Us to Take Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"2260347375_3eb4af95c9\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

This has been a challenging and difficult summer, filled with painful news from around the world.<\/p>\n

We can talk face to face with people\u00a0on the other side of the earth, but cannot\u00a0resolve long term problems. It has been a summer in which war, hunger, disease, and hopelessness have shown themselves again and again.<\/p>\n

What does spiritual life have to offer us this summer other than easy\u00a0platitudes and unfulfilled promises?<\/p>\n

It is not as if living spiritual life provides a list of workable action steps to address intractable worldwide plagues.<\/p>\n

Spiritual life is much deeper, much more than that.<\/p>\n

It can be easy for us to forget, as we face such heart wrenchingly painful times, that spiritual life gives us courage.<\/p>\n

Courage is more than being brave or persisting in the face of hard times. Courage is not about facing an adversary or a situation. Courage is our willingness to look directly into our own hearts, our deepest fears.<\/p>\n

Courage is meeting our own\u00a0conflict, hunger, sickness, and hopelessness directly.<\/p>\n

Spiritual life fills our hearts and sets them on fire. We explore the Sacred in the world around us, even in the challenging parts. We discover the Sacred in ourselves.<\/p>\n

Spiritual life is not a blueprint for social change with answers to all our questions. Spiritual life raises questions in us, questions on which we need to reflect to appreciate our world.<\/p>\n

Our questions help us listen and see more clearly. We become more open to the life that fills our hearts and the world around us. We experience new life.<\/p>\n

We take heart, and share our lives in creative ways. Spiritual life encourages us to act.<\/p>\n

How will you find the Sacred in your heart today?<\/p>\n

Where can you go to find the time you need to reflect?<\/p>\n

[Image by le vent le cri<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"