Taking Your Spiritual Pulse

By Jim Aquila

The rule of life is that life should be lived in balance, with God as the focal point.  (Rule of St. Benedict’s, 8^th century).  It is so easy to live a life that is out of balance, where work or some other aspect of life takes over.  In addition, it is far too tempting to place myself at the center of the universe.

Spiritual Warfare Is Waged Daily —Romans Chapter 7

Spiritual Balance

It is entirely possible to live a lifetime and not be exposed to the possibility that things can go wrong within a relationship - and that few people consider the spiritual aspects of relationships as being important.  Spiritual balance in a relationship is experienced within the marriage; within a family and within the individual’s community.  Mankind has unfortunately parted from many of it’s spiritual values.  A recent inquiry to one of my articles the person states—

Question- “Females have a natural spiritual balance.  When women figure that out and stop trying to compete with male energies, they will begin to know their power.  Do you have any thoughts on how they might be able to do this in a balanced way?  It seems like the role models I see of women who have "made it" today are women who have done so by pushing their way through.”

Answer- It's true that we see the role models who take a pushier attitude to life.  However, you have to qualify what you mean by "making it".  In the ego's thinking, "making it" represents money, glamour, success, power, fast cars, and the like.  In our view, making it is more of a spiritual exercise, so there are millions of women who have made it quietly in a spiritual way who would not be considered successful in the world of the ego.

If you have adopted the ego's way of thinking for your life, then you do have to continually push in life.  We live in a society that requires pushy types of action, investment, shoving, self-advertising, and so on.  If you work within the thinking of the higher self or the infinite self, then “making it” is something very different.  Obviously, one needs to develop a sense of balance, a certain amount of "making it" in order to be creatively and financially successful, and a certain amount of embracing one's feminine spirituality.  We know loads of soft, spiritual ladies who are self-made millionaires, so it can be done.

Women have to walk a fine line between making a living and asserting themselves so they're not used and manipulated by other people.  But then again, the balance is the same for males, because the tendency for males is to push to hard and to strive with such zeal that they push the very thing they want away from themselves.  Many males tend to overwork themselves and lose track of their childlike qualities and their inner softness.

The rule of life is that life should be lived in balance, with God as the focal point.  (Rule of St. Benedict’s, 8^th century).  It is so easy to live a life that is out of balance, where work or some other aspect of life takes over.  In addition, it is far too tempting to place myself at the center of the universe.  Living a rule of life helps me to keep striving for balance- to be conscious of what I do and why- and it reminds me to be open to God in all aspects of my daily life.  The key concept is that our rule helps us remember that we are not the center of our own universe, and that we are one piece of something much larger.

Perhaps this sounds a lot like a New Year's resolution to you. It did to me at first, too because that’s the time most people make promises.  However, we drop the resolutions quickly, because they continually remind us that we're just not good enough or our goals are not realistic.  A rule of life, however, grows from the positive aspects of our life.  We discern it in conversation with God, make God the focus of our rule (rather than images of ourselves) and we move in the directions in which we feel called.  A rule of life is a response to being loved by God, and feeling moved to become what God calls us to be in this world. 

“One of the essential elements of spirituality is humility: Humility says that you hold fast to patience with a silent mind when in this obedience you meet with difficulties and contradictions and even any kind of injustice, enduring all without growing weary or running away.  Scripture says, "The one who perseveres to the end, is the one who shall be saved", and again, "Let your heart take courage, and wait for the Lord".

Though there are as many ways to look at rules of life as there are people, most rules of balance address the same basic categories: seeking God; prayer; work; study; spiritual community and worship; care of our bodies; reaching out to others; and hospitality.  Over the last ten years, I have tried to recognize what God calls me to do in these areas.  For instance, what kind of prayer does God ask o me?  How should I care for my body in a way that honors it as a gift from God?  How can I be the arms, legs, and voice of God for others in this world that need my help?  These are the kinds of questions I have sought to answer, in conversation and prayer with God, and with spiritual companions and advisors, over the years.

“There is no one great thing that we can do to obtain eternal life, and it seems to me that the great lesson to be learned in the world today is to apply the little acts and duties of life the glorious principles of the Gospel.  Let us not think that because some of the things named this afternoon may seem small and trivial, that they are unimportant.  Life, after all, is made up of little things.  Our life, our being, physically, is made up here of little heart beats.  Let that little heart stop beating, and life in this world ceases.  The great sun is a mighty force in the universe, but we receive the blessings of his rays because they come to us as little beams, which, taken in the aggregate, fill the whole world with sunlight.  The dark night is made pleasant by the glimmer of what seem to be little stars; and so the true Christian life is made up of little Christ-like acts performed this hour, this minute, in the home, in the community, in the town, wherever our life and acts may be cast. -Author Unknown

I have not always found the discernment of the answers to these questions easy, nor have I always found it easy to live with the answers.  One thing that I have found invaluable is the advice and counsel of others who know me well.  I am forever trying to take on too much, make too big a rule, something that even the greatest saint could not keep, when I should be taking baby steps.  Instead of figuring out the next step in my spiritual life, I decide that starting tomorrow I will take on some huge and time-consuming spiritual chores and do it everyday from now on.  In other words,  I begin to treat my rule of life like a New Year's resolution.  When I fail to keep such a rule, as I always do, it has been enormously helpful to have spiritual friends to tell me that I've set my goals too high or been too hard on myself.  At other times, when I do not try hard enough to keep my rule I need people in my life who are honest about that with me too.  Rules were never meant to be discerned or kept in isolation.  The support of a close friend, advisor, or a prayerful community makes all the difference in living a rule of life.

It is not the amount that any individual may know that will benefit him and his fellows; but it is the practical application of their knowledge.  There are many men that are great students, and yet so far as making a practical application of their knowledge they are almost what might be called educated fools.

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