Well having spent the week exploring Spirituality in the Reform tradition, I conclude that I am no more reformed or spiritual than when I started! But then was that the object of the week?
As I sit writing I have REM playing on my stereo and the words "looking for answers from the great beyond" have just been sung and I wonder whether this was some of what I expected from the week. I have heard the words 'spirituality' and 'reformed' on a weekly if not daily basis over the past few months, which has been left thinking "ok, but what do we actually mean?" And now after spending a week dedicated to the discussion of these terms I'm still thinking "ok, but what do we actually mean?"
(Productive use of time!)
That is possibly a harsh analysis of the week. Maybe I didn't get someone giving me simple set of definitions, but then spirituality has many different levels as does being reformed. But I have come to understand a bit more about what it means for me in the context I find myself.
I live in communion and this has many different levels and connections. There is the community of Westminster College where I phyiscally live, a constantly changing community dependent on the hour of the day, the day of week and the day of the year. There is the community of the church: where I worship on Sunday; the denomination for which I am training to be a Minister within; the body of Christ. There is my family and my friends. And there is my communion with God. All these inform how I live a life in the Spirit, i.e. my spirituality, and they also require a 'we' rather than an 'I' outlook, which is partly what it means to be reformed!
So this week I didn't need to become more reformed or spiritual, I just needed to learn what it means to live spiritually in the reformed tradition. Now my job is to apply what I've learnt, remembering I'm a 'We' not just an 'I', because wherever I am, so is God.
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