To know Christ, grow in Christ, and share Christ's love.
Our Spiritual Journeys
Written by Merrill Wade
June 5, 2006
Austin, Texas
This past weekend I was with around 1,000 people in Houston for a conference. We were a gathering of like-minded people, seeking to better understand our faith and spirituality. One of the speakers was a woman named Joyce Kariuki, an ordained church leader from Kenya. She was very attractive in her African dress and a wonderful speaker with great insights into the ways of the world. Let me offer you an example.
The Rev. Kariuki said she landed in Houston tired and ready to rest in her hotel room. She turned on the TV and the local Houston news was blaring all sorts of sad news: Houston murders; war in Iraq; nuclear threats from Iran; immigration fears; and on and on. Joyce said something like this, "I became depressed. And I felt depressed until the advertisements came on, and then I realized that the advertisements were designed to make you happy. There were young girls buying jeans and smiling and looking healthy and happy. There were men driving shiny, fast cars and looking healthy and happy. Smiling, intelligent people told you to use your credit card and you can do anything. I began to realize that America needs advertising and its products to cope with all the bad news all the time."
Hearing Joyce say that, I was stunned by its simplicity. Do we need the visual images and sounds and smiles of advertisements to give us hope in an all too dreary and scary world? I raise such a question not because I can offer a simple answer. I raise such a question because I believe so many of us seek the Spirit, a spiritually based way of life, because we have learned that consuming "things," cars, houses, clothes, and other things made so important by our advertising, will not satisfy us for very long, if at all.
Spirituality is a way of life that seeks to dwell in God's presence in the world. Spirituality focuses on the meaning of life, the deeper needs and yearnings that underlie our basic humanity. We were created as spiritual beings with a deep craving for God and for a life rooted in God's love and purposes. I needed to hear a non-American remind me of the trap we can all fall into here in our great nation. Namely, we run serious risk of living life primarily as consumers and need special encouragement to remain interested in the ways of the spiritual life.
I have made a simple two-part vow for myself. When I watch TV, I'll remind myself that the evening news will tell a bleak story, and that as a Christian I can internally interpret that bad news to be a personal reminder, thus an opportunity for me, perhaps with others, to go where others are suffering, simply to offer help. Authentic spirituality usually awakens us to the suffering of others. The second part of my vow is to "be vigilant" when watching advertisements. Ads can be helpful, but I do not want to be manipulated at all - for manipulation of any kind can damage our spiritual well-being.
What are your thoughts or feelings about what I am saying?
The Rev. Merrill Wade is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church, serving at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas. You are encouraged to contact him at
Merrill@StMattsAustin.org.
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