After thinking about this for a while I decided that 'me' was something that was separate from my body, but who lived in my body.  At that time, I knew nothing , as far as I can remember, about 'spirit'  Although I went to Sunday School, the 'spiritual' aspects of Christianity were not mentioned - at least to the children. It was not until I was an adult that I learned that the Holy Spirit is a person, but without a body, just as the 'me' inside my body is a person.

All I knew about spirits was ghost stories, which I didn't believe were real anyway, but made good yarns.

The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is God who has come to be the adviser, teacher and supporter of Christians - to fill the gap left by Jesus when he returned to take his place with God the Father. (John 14:15 -18)  The Bible also tells us that God made human beings in his own likeness - like himself. (Genesis 1: 26, 27)  Now, we know that God doesn't have a body, so it can't be our physical bodies that are like God.  I believe this means that human beings were made with a spirit, like God himself is spirit.

It seems to me that the spirit part of each of us needs to be fed and nourished, just as our physical bodies need to be fed and nourished, so that we become strong both physically and spiritually.  When our spirit is not nourished, we become spiritually weak - unable to love, to receive love, to enjoy life and appreciate this wonderful world we live in.  Eventually, just as a physical body starves and dies without nourishment, I believe so does our spirit.  If a person's spirit has withered and died, when the physical body dies, there is nothing left.  A stong spirit, I believe, survives physical death.  Where and how it survives is the big question!

People use many different methods of nourishing the spirit: prayer, meditation, music, artistic expression and appreciation, appreciation and enjoyment of nature, worship, fun and laughter, caring for others, participation in different religious practices ..........

As a Christian, I believe that the best and most effective way of growing and nourishing my spirit is through a personal relationship with God, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to live within a Christian, joined or melded with the person's spirit to nourish and nurture. There is a difficulty with this: the Holy Spirit is holy - perfect.  I am not.  Expecting my imperfect spirit to relate closely with the perfect spirit doesn't work.  God's Spirit is pure love.  I am far from completely loving.

The Bible tells us that, in his great wisdom, God has this one worked out too. For some reason, it seems that God wants to join with each human being in a close realtionship - a little like a close parent/child relationship - or maybe like a close grandparent/grandchild relationship. (I'm a grandma, remember!)  So he has made provison for this difficulty.

(Apologies to those who don't like to call God 'he'.  I believe God is neither 'he' nor 'she' - God is not a sexual being.  The only other option I see is to call God 'it'.  And God is not an 'it'; he is a person.  So I'm left with 'he' or 'she' - and old habits die hard.  So I refer to God inaccurately as 'he'.  If you prefer to call God 'she' that is equally  inaccurate, but I don't think God really minds either way!  He/She understands our dilemma)

The Bible calls the human imperfections and self centredness 'sin'.  It makes the point that every human being is to some extent self centred and this prevents us from being as spiritually strong and perfect as the Holy Spirit.  It also prevents us from being able to join our spirits with him.

So what did God do about that?

He came to earth as a human being - Jesus of Nazareth, 'God the Son' - both to show us how much he loves us, to show us how he would like us to live, for our own growth and development and our own benefit, and also, in the act of submitting to horrible torture and a most degrading execution by crucifixion, he somehow wiped out the self-centredness (or sin) of those who accept his act on their behalf.  I don't understand how that happens, but it's my experience and the experience of countless Christians throughout the past 2000 or so years that it does.

(John 3: 16 tells us : For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.)

With the imperfections cleared away in God's eyes, that makes it possible for my spirit and the Holy Spirit to become joined in me.  From that time, I begin to change and grow spiritually stronger.  It affects my personality and my attitudes so that I begin to become more Christ-like.  My spirit becomes strong and alive even when my physical body begins to grow weaker and eventually die and decay.  I begin to develop in my character and personality what the Bible calls the 'fruit of the Spirit': love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness or trustworthiness, gentleness, self discipline. (Galatians 5: 22,23).  This doesn't happen over night.  It takes time - for some of us it takes longer than for others.

This aliveness and spiritual growth is, I believe,  what the Bible refers to as 'eternal life'.  It begins in this life and continues on after my physical body is dead.  Where does it continue?  I'll have to let you know when I get there! (If you're there too)

These ramblings are the beginnings of my thinking about spirituality.  I'm interested to know how others see their spirituality. I'd be pleased to know your thoughts and comments. Email me or sign my guestbook.