God is to be experienced, not memorized

​Yesterday, I spent some time with a friend I treasure. She's had a rough time lately; her dad's been critically ill. There were days she was sure she was going to lose him.

But yesterday she shared great news. Her dad is home and well and suddenly living the life of an inexplicable miracle.

My friend said something to me that has weighed on me. She told me she's not a religious person but a spiritual one. Then she told me the story about her dad - this miraculous turn from death to new life - and about repaired relationships and families drawn together in unexpected ways.

As she told me about this shift in life from constant worry to peace, I was grateful I was talking to a spiritual person and not a religious one.

Driving home from meeting with her, I wondered how many religious people are roadblocks to other people experiencing God's miracles. I wondered how many religious people get caught up memorizing the definitions of God and measuring and judging other people by them and in their own lives miss God's invitation to experience peace.

More and more, "religious" to me means believing one has the right definition of God.

Talking to my friend yesterday, I found myself feeling "spiritual."

I found myself believing that being spiritual means being so filled with God's love that we can't help but notice it when he's pouring it into the people around us.

I found myself wondering if memorizing the right definition of God isn't the quickest path to totally missing him when he works a miracle.