What Does Your Spirituality Mean To You? A Lutheran Perspective
Introduction by Cole Goodwin
Welcome to the first installment of The Spiritual Roundtable, an interfaith roundtable featuring a diverse range of spiritual belief systems in the Gorge Community.
Each week, spiritual leaders and learners will share their take on some of humanity's biggest questions, starting with: What does your spirituality mean to you? And ramping up into discussions about the nature of existence, the soul, the divine, and of course…a question as old as time itself: why are we here?
Roundtable writings will be published each Saturday and Sunday morning of the month.
Now take a deep breath… Meditate for a moment…And when you’re ready…keep reading to explore one of the many diverse faiths, belief systems, and philosophies that exist in our communities.
This Month's Question: What does your spirituality mean to you?
Why this question was chosen: This question asks us to examine what purpose and function our (faith, practice, belief system, philosophy) can serve in our lives. As well as how spirituality can guide our actions and way of walking in the world.
About Tyler Beane Kelly: I am a pastor but I don’t like being up on a pedestal. It’s lonely up there! I like messy spirituality, messy questions, deconstructing and reconstructing the faith as the Spirit speaks to us, calls us forward into the future. When I got to Zion Lutheran Church (ELCA) in The Dalles back in 2015, the best advice I got from one of our church members is: be yourself. I try to live that out and encourage others to do the same. One of the things that I’ve been discovering is…the challenge is to be yourself for the sake of others. I have a passion for mental health awareness as that is my own story and the story of my family. I have a passion for helping the homeless and regularly spend time with my friends down at Community Meals. I love outdoor adventuring in the Gorge with my wife Mairead and our little family, George, 5, and Maeve, who is almost 2. I encountered God in the movies back when I was 13 and have been watching them ever since. My church website is: zioninthedalles.com.
A Lutheran Perspective
by Tyler Beane Kelly, CCCNews Spiritual Roundtable Facilitator
You ask what my spirituality means to me. I have answer. Tomorrow I might have a question.
You ask me what my spirituality means and today I have an answer.
But come ask me tomorrow and the answer will be different because spirituality is a living, breathing thing that changes as we change. From the Christian scriptures, we have this promise from God: “See I make all things new.”
Today, my spirituality is about a moment of encounter.
Today, I listened to Carrie Newcomer’s “Sanctuary,” a collaboration between her as a singer-songwriter and Parker Palmer, beloved theologian, poet, and educator. The song is a doozy. Listen to these words:
“Will you be my refuge
My haven in the storm,
Will you keep the embers warm
When my fire's all but gone?
Will you remember
And bring me sprigs of rosemary,
Be my sanctuary
'Til I can carry on
Carry on.
Carry on.”
These pandemic years have been tough for parents of young children. Our worlds have gotten smaller in the pandemic and that’s had beautiful moments and especially challenging moments.
Today I was home again with a sick kid, Maeve, almost two years old, and I was feeling grumpy about it. I was in a self-protective stance towards the day. But then I was listening to this song. And while listening to this song, Maeve walked up to me with her thumb in her mouth, and these big yearning blue eyes, and held out her hands. And as I took her into my lap, it’s as if she found the language she doesn’t yet have in this song. It’s as if she was saying to me, “Daddy, I need you to be my refuge, my haven in this storm. That’s why you’re home with me sick today.”
And the encounter broke through my shell and I started feeling again, feeling for her in her sickness, and I started breathing again. I could feel the relief in my face when I let go of my grumpiness.
Spirituality is that thing in us which beckons, which yearns, which prods us to be cracked open to the pain and the beauty of this world. To what is. To have open hands and open hearts for the people in our lives. For me it takes a moment of encounter. Whether that’s a song like “Sanctuary,” whether it’s a phone call with a dear friend, whether it’s a trail run on the Deschutes, whether it’s a stranger down at community meals, we have a moment of encounter. And the divine light shines through the cracks of what is and touches us, pierces our walls and barriers, and cracks us open. So that we can just be again. So that we can, as the song says, carry on.
Want to contribute to the Spiritual Roundtable? Read this first.
The Roundtable Mission and Vision
The goal of these roundtable writings is to:
Bring the spiritual community together.
Share ideas that elevate the human spirit.
Elevate the conversation around the spirit.
Embrace what is universal to all, while honoring what is special about each spirituality.
Center inclusivity and equity.
Promote our collective enlightenment.
Nurture civility and friendship between those with diverse belief systems in the Gorge.
Engage readers and spiritual seekers.
The Spiritual Roundtable IS NOT…
This is not a place for arguing about dogma.
This is not a place for ‘hating on’ or putting other belief systems down.
This is not a place for excluding, discriminating, or promoting fear or violence towards other people based on their race, color, ethnicity, beliefs, faith, gender, sexuality, ability.
This is not a place for hatred.
This is not a place for fear.
The Spiritual Roundtable IS..
This IS a place for hope.
This IS a place for joy.
This IS a place for comfort.
This IS a place for big questions.
This IS a place for learning.
This IS a place for sharing.
This IS a place for caring.
This IS a place for sharing what is special about your beliefs.
CCC News reserves the right to not publish any content that breaks with our mission, vision and values.
If you are interested in being included in the roundtable please email cole@columbiacommunityconnection.com
