Learning Prayer Lessons
Mood:  hug me
Now Playing: Prayer for People Who Think too Much
I’m a voracious reading. I love reading. I also like to read different books in a subject I’m interested in or want to learn more about. Right now I’m reading a lot of spiritual and self-help books to help me become more accepting of my self, improve my self-esteem, improve my prayer life, and to help me strengthen my beliefs.

This week, I’ve been reading a book called Prayer for People Who Think Too Much: A Guide to Everyday Anywhere Prayer from the World’s Faith Traditions by Mitch Finley. It has been very enlightening to me. As a self-proclaimed liberal-leftist, I often find myself separating my religious beliefs from my political beliefs. Attending a Unitarian Universalist church helps somewhat, because UUs are good at combining their religious beliefs with their political beliefs. However, I sometimes find that stifling to my spiritual self. This book has taught me the following lessons so far:

1.People in the Western World who are spiritual feel forced to practice their faith and religious consciousness in secrecy, because they live in a societies where church and state are separate. People don’t bring their faith into the workplace or places outside their home as to not offend other people around them who are not of the same faith.

2. In Judaism, many prayers are used throughout the day when doing anything for the first time. For example, when a you put on your clothes for the first time in the morning you thank God for giving you clothes to wear.

3.An authentic spirituality resists the dominant culture’s divorce of the secular from the sacred, finding that even in such a culture, God is present in the people and human activities that fill the average day. Even when the dominant culture restrains people from acting out their faith in overt ways, authentically religious person perceives the sacred every where. (Ed note: This one paragraph has helped me understand the right-wing conservative’s side of things a little bit. Although, I still believe that in a country like the United States, when there are several 100 different religions being practiced, it is difficult to base the government or law on one religion’s law.)

4.One of the most important ways to cultivate and maintain a sensitivity to the holy in the ordinary in a secularized culture is through regular prayer and meditation.

5.A balanced spirituality includes the willingness to make the world a better place, even if we risk our very life. (Ed Note: My deepest desire is to make the world a better place. Sometimes, it feels overwhelming to do so and I get down. I have to remember that I do not have the power to make the entire world a better place, only God does. What I can do, is make the spaces I inhabit each day a better place. I can cause a chain reaction of goodness that could spread across the world.)