This is the first in what will be a regular column written on a rotating basis by spiritual leaders and religious educators in the New River Valley.

As the Pastor of a local metaphysical church, I frequently counsel with those who have reached an inevitable point in their lives where they are seeking answers regarding how and where their own permanence lies within something that is spiritually greater than ourselves. They find themselves struggling to realize some tangible co-existence between the mundane and their own spirituality.

Whether we are Metaphysical, Buddhist, Protestant, Muslim, Catholic or Agnostic, at some point we’ll all find ourselves bombarded by someone else’s religious beliefs of right and wrong, and even more often, spiritual importance, when all we want is to find some level of peace.
It’s not always easy to find within ourselves a level of spiritual balance, or to even see beyond the immediate and unnecessary emotional and physical struggling that’s caused by our perceived needs and desires when we’re faced with the daunting questions of someone else’s or our own everyday politics and religion.

What do you tell someone who asks questions such as “How do you find peace in God if you have a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan while Congress and the President debate over whether it’s necessary? You just want them home safe.” “How do you find God within yourself when you’re a gay or lesbian student, or a pregnant teenager shunned by your family or told by religious conservatives that they hate who you are and what you’re doing because you’re sinful?” “How do you seek enlightenment, let alone muster up enough strength to carry you through the day, when your child is dying of cancer and then someone tells you it’s God’s will?”

In the current political fever for the White House, few words incite deeper emotional feelings than those expressing spiritual or religious ideological dogma. But are these words and religious and political ideals that support your beliefs or opinions truly important? Are these issues what really matter spiritually? Just how much spirituality is there in dogma anyway?

You don’t have to be the pastor of a church to know that it can be more than challenging to ignore all our feelings and unlearn what we’ve learned, just set it all aside, start meditating, and achieve a level of spiritual enlightenment, by understanding that the only thing real is consciousness.

But just maybe if in the midst of our distractions we were to pause and ask ourselves, what am I co-creating, is it what really matters? Just maybe in some metaphysical Zen kind of way we might be able to set aside our preconceived attachment to ideas and prejudices, and instead spiritually accept every experience as if it were the first time: connecting with it, without expectation, accepting that we have no control over most circumstances.

When we’re receptive to the infinite possibilities of new experiences, the Universe will provide, if we allow it to. As one of my close friends says, “It is what it is, and it’s all good. So work with it and go with the flow.”

Rev. Steven McClain is the Pastor of the new NRV Metaphysical Chapel. Their services are held Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. at the Radford Public Library.