It is amazing that so much of the personal spiritual journey gets played out in the community and the cultural stage as well. There has for a number of years been such a struggle with many people to find a spiritual path that feels authentic and not littered or burdened with the baggage of the hierarchical and patriarchal system. So many dear friends have found a deep connection with the divine in Native American, Buddhist, yogic, Hindu, or new age spirituality. It is the time we live in and I am not about to spend time telling them they are wrong. They are, after all, experiencing God and growing in love in their own ways. Yet there is still an unsettledness that I sense.

Maybe it is in the need to make a cut from their Christian roots, the church that they experienced growing up. This is important for people to do, to be sure. I don’t blame them as there was, and still is, a lot of hurt happening in the 20th/21st century church. Maybe some of this unsettledness is expressed in a unresting search. Searching is good. Perhaps it is skepticism. This serves us for a time. It is all different yet not too far from the other side of Christian brothers and sisters who have “found the truth” and are resting in their assurance.

There is a great hearth for us to gather at within Christianity, as we experience it in the historical mystical tradition. We are Westerners, most of us, and our ancestors came out of the Christian church, in all it’s splendor and even it’s darkness. We don’t have to accept it all, or even most, but I dare say we may find our resting place within it. The Christian mystics had so much to offer us, even within our tradition. Union, nondualism, connection, acceptance, love, cosmology, an acceptance of science, an embracing of the arts, and a love and honor for the feminine, in humanity and in the divine.

Don’t expect me to “evangelize” or apologetic my way though to people, but I will dig my well here and know that some places along the way others will join me. May we hve confidence our ancestors will be with us on this journey as well.