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Growing up my family had one rule when we gathered for meals - regular meals or on special occasions. We had to have a little bit of everything on our plate. Don't like squash? Have a little anyway. Not a fan of ham? Just a small piece is fine. Do you love potatoes? Great, but make sure there's space for other things!

This rule helped to make sure we tried a variety of foods, but it also helped to ensure that our meals were more healthy than if we only took the things we wanted to take.

Are our spiritual diets this abundant and as diverse? Are we ensuring that what is feeding our souls is as healthy as what feeds our bodies?

With the range of options available to us through books, programs, and the internet, it is easy to treat our spirituality like a buffet – picking and choosing what we like and leaving behind what we don't like. When we do this with food, our bodies can easily become deficient in certain areas. The same is true with our spiritual life.

In emphasizing the individuality of our spiritual lives, we've created expectations that I can take what is "good for me" (by which we actually mean, "what I like or am naturally inclined towards") and reject everything else. For example, an extrovert might push aside any practice of solitude or silence as "not working for them." Alternatively, an introvert may revel in engaging in church while at home online and determine congregational interaction as optional even once COVID is over. That's only one example.

Someone who engages emotionally may check out when there are intellectual things to engage in. Conversely the one who engages deeply with thinking may reject emotional expression. Those who emphasize "the moving of the Spirit" may push back against written prayers while those who value rootedness and structure may find a book of written prayers to be a life-giving well.

As Jesus followers it is good to acknowledge our unique personalities, and tastes. We are all wired differently! But it is also important for us to realize that if we only engage in ways that fit our personality and taste, we will not be getting a balanced meal. We will likely end up being deficient in areas.

Alternatively, if we ensure we "take a little bit of everything" we are likely to be more balanced in our spiritual life and we may even discover something we love but otherwise never would have tried.

  • How much of your spiritual practice is passive (receiving) versus active (contributing)?
  • How much of your spiritual practice is in community versus alone? (Note...just because you are in the same space as others, doesn't mean you're truly doing it in a community.)
  • How much of your spiritual practice is talking versus listening?
  • How much of your spiritual practice is thinking versus feeling?
  • How much of your spiritual practice is learning versus reflecting?
  • How much of your spiritual practice is affirming your tendencies and biases versus challenging your assumptions and default behaviours?

I don't think you need to eat a full plate of that which you struggle to swallow. But there may be something lacking in your diet that could help you be healthier. Think through your spiritual practices this week and see where you might need to intentionally work at tasting some other things!

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