Spiritual Goals

 I attended my weekly Meaningful Conversations group today.  It's a fun group of people, mostly from Nashville and nearby, but we also have people from California and DC in the states, and from Quebec, Grenada, and England.  We're a diverse bunch religiously, as well, and though our jumping-off point for our discussions is Baha'i writings, we get lots of great perspectives from adherents of other religions and those who aren't particularly religious.  I've been attending this group by Zoom since September, and when we miss a week for a holiday or in-person meeting, I really miss not only the conversation, but the people.  I've only met a couple of them in person, but have come to see all of them as friends.

Today's discussion was about spiritual New Year's resolutions.  One of the questions we talked about was "What qualities and attitudes will help us achieve our spiritual goals?"  That's not something we think about much when we set our New Year's resolutions, which is probably why so few of them make it past the first week of January.  In the podcast I've been listening to a lot lately, Don't Keep Your Day Job, the host, Cathy Heller, talks a lot about "reverse engineering."  When setting a long-term goal, like starting a business or writing a book, you have to work backward from your goal, so you know what you have to accomplish along the way.  So, if you have a goal to publish a book in two years, and you have 12 chapters, you may decide that you need to write one chapter per month for the first year, then spend the next couple of months proofreading, having others read it, etc., then move on to submitting the manuscript, further editing, printing, etc., before the book is released at your two-year mark.  I'm sure there's more to it, but that's not my point.  Any big goal we set must have smaller goals along the way, like mile-markers, so we stay on track and don't get caught meandering at every tourist trap on the journey.  

When we talk about spiritual goals, we have to have that same kind of mile-marker.  But these may not always be tangible, like chapters written or pounds lost or money saved.  There might be physical activities to engage in, like reading the Bible for twenty minutes a day, or meditating twice a week, or giving to those in need.  Often, though, it's internal stuff that needs changing in order to effect external change in our relationship with God, each other, and the world.  If I want to be closer to God, I need to see time with God as a privilege, not a chore.  If my goal is to be more loving to my neighbor, I need to recognize her as a child of God, and my sister, and not as someone who inconveniences me with her garbage cans or barking dogs or 4th of July parties.  If I want to take care of the world around me, I need to remember our symbiotic relationship, rather than just  seeing the earth as a commodity providing my needs.  There are activities attached to these goals, but a change in my thinking and my attitude is needed to set the ball rolling, to motivate me to act on my goals.  

So, do you have spiritual goals for 2023?  What qualities and attitudes will help you achieve those goals?  Humility, patience, hope, love, justice, mercy, grace--there are too many to name.  Why not just start with one?  There are eight billion people on the planet.  What difference could we make if each one of us would commit to just that one little thing?  How about if only half of us do it?  A fourth?  An eighth?  What about just me?  

I leave you with a quote from one of my faves.  Sometimes I think, "How could little ol' me make a difference in the world?  I'm nothing.  I'm not special.  I'm not good at anything."  None of us is perfect.  None of us is whole.  Leonard Cohen said, "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."  Embrace the crack.  Soak in the light, and then spread it to the world.