Your Maintenance Plan

I was out of town for 2 weeks. When I left, there were still some patches of snow were it had been deep and many of the cars around town were covered in a winter’s worth of dirt and grime, including ours.

My husband Bill had taken the car to get washed while I was gone, but when I queried why he didn’t have the oil changed, something that is included in the new vehicle package that came with our SUV, he said: “I forgot.”

Folks, there is a light on the dashboard that reminds you that it’s time for maintenance. I had mentioned it to him, but the car wash, for which there is no light, is the thing that happened.

I thought this was such a perfect example of what can happen when we are walking the spiritual path, or even the path of life. We can put a lot of energy and focus on the superficial things: am I siting in the right position? Am I saying the right words? Am I drinking the right tea? These things can be helpful to our journey, but they are window dressings compared to the real work of spiritual growth or even maintenance.

But it’s not as much fun right? Going to the car wash is a short funhouse ride through bubbles and water, with fluffy brushes working all around you while you’re dry and warm within your car. Changing the oil on the other hand requires either waiting around in a greasy smelling waiting room, or actually getting in there and getting dirty yourself. Neither of which are as much fun.

So we put off the real work and go for the easy stuff. A wise homeowner knows that you can’t paint over dry rot, it needs to be taken out and replaced.

The spiritual/emotional journey does have fluffy rainbow moments, but it also has a good number of potholes, quicksand, and discomfort. Why is that? Why is the journey to be free so darn hard?

Because we are masters of delusion. We all have done it; it’s how we cope with a world that isn’t how we would like it to be. Maybe we were taught to not show/have feelings. Maybe we believed we were unworthy. Maybe we’ve had so many disappointments we have decided that good things don’t happen to keep our hearts safe. So we keep the door closed on that stuff, we cover our light before others can come along and try to do it for us.

But then we have a problem, because to be free, to delve deeper into our spiritual journey, we have to transcend that junk we have been picking up our whole lives. We need a spiritual oil change.

It’s not always pretty, it means remembering, feeling, and healing the hurts of the past. It means staying the course even when it’s uncomfortable. It’s not something you can pawn off on anyone else, (unlike the car’s oil change) and it’s not something you can hurry either. While counselors, ministers, and friends can walk alongside you, they cannot walk through the doors or grief for you.

So why bother? Why not keep it buttoned up like so many before us?

It’s the reason you’re still reading this dear one, something in you is calling you to go deeper. Something in you hints to a kind of peace that you’ve experienced in a moment here and there. Maybe you’ve met someone with a deep spiritual practice, such as a monk or holy person, and you felt a pull to have more of that in your life. Maybe you’ve been studying spiritual teachers and have realized that struggle isn’t a required part of the human experience. We don’t walk the path of spiritual growth/enlightenment because it’s easy, we do it because it’s necessary.

This summer in our sermon series we’re going to be exploring 10 methods of deepening our spiritual growth following Robert Brumet’s book Living Originally. But before we get to that I have some advice to move from cleaning the outside at the car wash to getting in to the real gunk that is blocking your good.

First and foremost, Prayer and Meditation. Commit. Every Day. If you’re not meditating every day, start, even a few minutes. If you are meditating daily try adding some time. Try extending your format, you can get distracted by all the various ways to do this, my advice is simple: pick something and try it for at least a week before deciding if you need to tweak or change.

Second, embrace the discomfort. When we commit to the spiritual journey, it is a given that uncomfortable or painful memories or behaviors will show up. These things come up to be healed, if you can be brave and face the discomfort head-on, you will eventually find freedom. It may not be as quickly as you would like, but in the end, the energy expended in the process of healing is much less than a lifetime of suppression.

Third, remember you’re not alone. While only you can actually walk your journey, you are allowed a community to walk alongside you. This is why we have spiritual (church) communities, this is why we have counselors and ministers who are trained to help and be a support to folks on the journey.

Finally, stay the course. It’s not easy, but most things worth doing are. The stories are countless of the folks whose lives were transformed by their sticking to it. So too are the stories of the folks who gave up at the last bend in the road. The good news is that there’s no timeline or anticipated due date, just keep at it and trust yourself.

There are many resources out there to help you along the path, I hope you will consider me one of them and let me recommend books or practices that may apply to where you are. You can always schedule an appointment for a chat or stop by during office hours.

While it’s certainly nice to have the car washed and clean of grime, remember the real work is always an inside job, and is usually not as fun or obvious in results. In the long run however, it’s what keeps your motor running.
Happy Travels,
Rev. Rachel

PS Bill approved my sharing this story about him.