Article February 27, 2017 Issue

Shaping our course Spiritward

Russ Gerber

If you asked almost anyone what things they do every day, you can imagine what would make the list. Handling demands at work, running errands, having or preparing meals, cleaning, reading, caring for family members, chatting with friends, being online, watching TV—pretty routine stuff.

But there’s something else to do every day that would not occur to most people but which deserves a place on the daily list. It goes hand in hand with something we all want—to live a fuller and more satisfied life. It also represents the value we put on a spiritually-centered life. So what is this daily item that requires our attention? It is the need to persistently resist a pull in the opposite direction to spiritual living—to resist the pull to drift along with the common conception of life as purely material, a conception with built-in limitations that are inherently changeable and subject to suffering and loss.

What we think about and agree with (or disagree with) day after day makes a huge difference over the long haul.