Spiritual Power
When Al Gore’s little slide show, turned documentary, turned Academy Award-winning film won an Oscar this year, an unprecedented shift occurred in our collective psyche. Among even the most devoted ostrich-types who like keeping their heads buried in the sand, a new awareness of the threat that is global warming began to dawn. For decades, scientists have been sounding the alarm in an attempt to wake us up out of our gas-guzzling, forest-burning, pest-poisoning stupor. As early as 1963, Martin Luther King named this dilemma when he said: “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.” Dr. King’s observation is all gloom and doom when quoted as a stand-alone statement, which is why I like to highlight what King said next: “Our hope for creative living lies in our ability to reestablish the spiritual needs of our lives in personal character and social justice.”
Spiritual needs, personal character, social justice… now there’s a solution worth investing in. But where do we start? We start at home by changing ourselves so we can embody—and evidence in our words and deeds—the changes we want to see “out there.”
Try the following exercise in character building. For three days, take note of everything in your world that irks you. Make a list of all the hurts, slights, jealousies, and injustices that occur as you walk through your daily life. Then take an hour or an afternoon and sit down with a journal to reflect on each incident. A flare went off in your body and mind for a good reason: something you value was trod upon, denied, or placed out of reach. Some injustice or some failure to care occurred. How did you respond to each incident? Did you react and match the unkind or unconscious moment on the same wavelength? Or did you have the presence of mind to notice something “off” and respond with compassion and concern?
Rate your response to each incident on a scale of 1-10; 1 means “I responded completely unconsciously without thinking or choosing my words and actions,” and 10 means,“I behaved completely independent of the circumstance and in alignment with my highest values.” This exercise is not about judging yourself, this is an evaluative exercise meant to provide a unique “character reference” and reality-check.
We do well to honestly evaluate where we are now if we aspire to a growth spurt in our character. Once you’ve taken time to reflect on what did happen, engage your imagination and replay each incident as though you were, in fact, a person in full possession of the ability to choose your response in each moment and respond from level 10.
Ask yourself,“How might I have brought a light-hearted touch or sprinkling of humor to the moment and thus turned the circumstance around?” The ability to self-reflect and self-correct is a key element in developing personal character. Do this exercise regularly and you will literally see the change you want to see in the world happening within yourself.
Now go back to your list and notice which of the irksome incidents had to do with matters that concern a violation of the rights of others. These are the issues that concern you in the arena of social justice. Addressing these issues will fill your spiritual well from the deepest source. When we bring our gifts to bear in service to others, we fill ourselves from the bottom up, tapping an eternal spring.
For example, I recently saw an interview with Mary Winkler, the woman who was convicted of manslaughter and served seven months for killing her abusive husband. Shortly after her release, Mary Winkler appeared on a television interview. My response was immediate and pervasive. I could not help but notice that she was clearly suffering post-traumatic shock. When I was interviewed on the radio the following morning, I steered the conversation in this direction. My concern for abused women mandates that I address this social justice issue at every turn. The feelings I have are what tells me this issue is my responsibility. What are the issues that raise the hair on your neck? These are the causes you are meant to champion and thus feed the deeper spiritual hunger of your being. It may be global warming for some, abandoned children for another.
Get to know yourself through self-reflective practices like the one outlined above and you will serve the world with the passion and insight that is a unique expression of your soul. You may not be the one to come up with a break-through invention that addresses global warming, but you may be the one to relieve the suffering of an abused child, or to save one dying person the pain of loneliness for an afternoon. No act of kindness is too small, and no expression of compassion is lost on your soul.
Again, in the words of Martin Luther King: “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of Heaven and Earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great sweeper, who swept his job well.”
