The desire for spiritual growth comes from a deep yearning within to go to a place we call home. The main character in Pat Conroy’s novel, Beach Music, says, “I could not quiet that pearly ache in my heart that I diagnosed as the cry of home.” That pearly ache is the work of the Holy Spirit within us.

I’ve seen it at work in the lives of those who know they are dying. I remember being in a hospital room with a man and his wife. It was lung cancer. He knew he was in his last days, maybe even hours (in fact he died that night). In that privileged place I heard him say to his wife, “I want to go home.” Because of his condition there was no way he could go to his house. Louise got up on the bed. She lay down next to him. She wrapped her arms around him and said, “We are at home with each other. You are at home in my arms.” It was one of the most sacred and holy things I have ever witnessed.  It was like being given a glimpse of heaven.

Jesus said, “the Kingdom of heaven has come near.”

That is one of the truths about the spiritual life. Heaven is as close as your next breath. Heaven is all around us. I remember a married couple in our church, both of them elders, holding hands as they walked together to the communion table to pray over the Lord’s Supper.  It was a heavenly sight.

A few years ago I was honored and humbled to lead a private marriage ceremony for a man and woman in their fifties. There were only five of us in the sanctuary. They’d been through the worst that life could throw at them.  Failed marriages, terrible disease, bankruptcies and more. I read from the book of Revelation, “Behold, I make all things new…” By the time the ceremony was over there wasn’t a dry eye. 

You don’t have to wait for some major event in your life for spiritual growth to begin. It can happen as soon as you are willing to pay attention to the life you’re living. It may not be easy. It may not always be pleasant but when we are willing to look deeply at our lives and the world that surrounds us we will find that, yes, God is already here.

Grace and peace to you,

-Glen