The Real Deal

Will the real reli­gion please stand up? There is cer­tainly no short­age of reli­gios­ity. It is out there every­where. In fact, there may about as many reli­giosi­ties as peo­ple. Do you know what it is that rep­re­sents the end of your quest?
When asked these ques­tions, peo­ple will look puz­zled at first and often offer an abrupt or pat answer. The first thing said will prob­a­bly be the denom­i­na­tional affil­i­a­tion they hold dear — or one from their child­hood. Maybe they will answer with the name of the author of a cur­rent book on spir­i­tu­al­ity. If asked if they can find it a lit­tle closer to home, they may also hide in the fog of reli­gious terms or con­sider the ques­tion itself as loaded or moot. It could even be writ­ten off as impos­si­ble to define.
Is it found in a par­tic­u­lar reli­gious prac­tice? Does a per­son have to climb Mt. Ever­est to have a spe­cial spir­i­tual awak­en­ing or insight? Would you call a sem­i­nary or a monastery to find the answer? Maybe it is right under your spir­i­tual nose and not out­side of you at all. Have you ever looked for its foot­prints in your own life?
Paul said, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kind­ness, good­ness, faith­ful­ness, gen­tle­ness, and self-control.” (Gala­tians 5:22-23a) He did not say a word about any place or group. He did not give some sort of mag­i­cal for­mula. He just made a list of its trails, traits, and tracks. I am not sure if any­one has all of these in per­fect bal­ance, but I know the Source. They do not arise from self-help books. They are character-based and more. Mem­o­riz­ing them would not put them into motion. Bits and pieces of them can be found in all sorts or reli­gions, but the real deal has the whole pack­age cus­tom tai­lored to each indi­vid­ual.
If reli­gion has a pur­pose or char­ac­ter at all, I find its marks in these traits. When I sense these in my own life, I know I am at my best. Most of all, I know it is not really “my” best at all. They may com­ple­ment my essence, but I did not cre­ate them. They are in the image of a far Greater Personality.