Everything is spiritual.

For those that know me well, this will come as no shock but I wanted to start off by saying I have a “man crush” on Rob Bell. So forgive me if I sound like a Rob Bell apologist (because, well, I am one). Some people love Rob (yeah, I feel like I can call him Rob) and some people think his take on church/theology/ministry is “not correct/sufficient/some-other-negative-term.” Obviously I am in the first camp, perhaps the President of that camp…or at the least a Secretary of State or something. But I digress…

This is not about Rob Bell. This is about a lecture series written by Rob Bell and its impact on how I view things. The series is titled Everything is Spiritual and its basic point can be boiled down to exactly what the title claims, that EVERYTHING is indeed spiritual. If you have a spare minute and forty-fiveish seconds to spare (and obviously you do, you are reading a blog written by some random kid) check out this video:

I am all about some parsimony and nothing quite fits the bill like summarizing a lecture series in under 2 minutes!

In addition to the brevity of summarizing Rob Bell’s point, he also tells it in a uniquely Rob Bell fashion, so hearing it from him is much better than hearing my brutal attempt to transcribe his uniqueness.

Okay, finally to my point (about time, I know). I was driving home last night after a gathering with the high schoolers in the youth group at my church and, with my iPod shuffling tunes through my car speakers, I heard a song I have heard a few dozen times. I have always like the song and band (clicky to listen), which is A Day to Remember – Have Faith in Me, but it struck me differently this go round. Now this could be because I had just come from an awesome time talking outreach with a bunch of youth and adults or it could have been because I was high off of my Mucinex (which works pretty well, actually) or maybe it was a blend of those two things, but I heard the song and thought to myself how everything really is spiritual. Now ADTR (A Day to Remember) is not a Christian band but the lyrics seem to convey the author had a grasp on how our relationship with Our Father is.

I said I’d never let you go, and I never did
I said I’d never let you fall and I always meant it
If you didn’t have this chance then I never did
You’ll always find me right there, again

Now don’t think me naive. I realize the author could have penned this about his girlfriend or mother or buddy but that further proves my point. Humans love and care because we were divinely constructed to do so. Because God shines His glory and love through us. Because every good thing we encounter is spiritual. We definitely do not have the capacity to live that way “on our own” and even when we think we are doing something good “on our own,” well,  we just are missing the point, right?

Let me throw out a really geeky analogy (and if you aren’t geeky, then I apologize but try and hang with me, I’ll keep it as painless as possible). We all know the comic book hero Superman. Well maybe you know or maybe you don’t but he essentially is only powerful because our planet gets its energy from our sun. Kryptonians, Superman’s “race,” whose native star Rao had been red, only possessed superpowers under the light of a yellow sun, like ours.

Okay, where am I going with that? Superman was only “super” on Earth. He was essentially a normal dude back home on Krypton (in regards to his powers). We are only loving and kind and generous and whatever else “good” you can think of because Our Creator made us in His image. His likeness. Anything made in His likeness has to be spiritual, right? As Mr. Bell points out, the Hebrews lack a word for “spiritual.” They obviously understood that everything was God’s so everything was holy.

Not even God used the word spirit or divine or anything like that when telling Moses who He was:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’

Exodus 3:14 – New International Version (NIV)

If He is who He is, then we are who He made us and that is in His image. Everything IS spiritual because everything is God’s.

God bless.

[Note from the editor: I apologize if this logic is difficult to follow, I am still on said Mucinex. I can't tell if my rambling makes sense or is just babble. So a mea culpa is being presented up front (well, really at the end but hey, that is better than nothing).]

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