Getting down and dirty and finding the Divine

Nothing can compare with the experience of seeing a rainbow in the sky

Would we ever be content to see rainbows only in books, or go through life only reading about the beauty of flowers, the feel of rain, the awesome sight of sunrises or sunsets? Hardly. Would we be content to know intelligently about falling in love and never want to experience it for real? I think not.

So why are we too often content to let our experience of God be totally abstract?

If you and I want to have a valid experience of God, we must do more than give ourselves to verbal prayer and silent meditation. We need to step outside of ourselves and move into God's world of people. We need to do works of charity, give not with money but give of our time, get our hands dirty, let our hearts feel the brokenness of others, feel their pain, offer them a real hand.

Think of it. The God who created us was not content to know the human condition from afar. The second person of the Godhead stepped into our lives and experienced all that we experienced, all the way to the down and dirty part.

We need to do the same. Divinity is not spread by abstract concepts. It is carried by you and me when we step out of ourselves. We do this when we let ourselves get down and dirty. In return, our souls are opened and the bounty of love contained therein is unleashed. For in truth, we are the ones who benefit the most from these deeds.

If we would experience the Divine in our lives, we must not be content with a clean and sanitized spirituality. Let us get down and get dirty by taking time to actually perform acts of kindness. Let us disrupt our schedule to help someone else. For when we do, we do not just bring the Divine goodness to that person. We release it from our own inner prison.