Most times when we approach the subject of understanding our deeper selves, I think our first thoughts go to the question of, “Are we religious?” From there we then move towards our inner beliefs and struggles between religion and spirituality. The problem is, by polarizing the two terms, we effectively turn both into institutional ideologies that tear our identity’s apart, rather than embody our whole selves in authenticity. In essence, we loose our deeper selves to the argument of semantics. As I heard it said once by John Ortberg, “I do not have a soul. I am a soul.”

Betty Pries describes the Deeper Self by saying:

“Together our deeper and descriptive selves form the essence of what it means to be a person. If our descriptive self is our form, then our deeper self is our formlessness, or life breath, on which identity rests. This is the house of the sacred that lives in each person. It is the birthplace of all goodness, generosity, and grace. In various religious traditions, the deeper self is described as the presence or breath of God, as consciousness, or as the energy of great love, coursing through the body of each person.”

— PRIES, BETTY. THE SPACE BETWEEN US (PP. 89-90). MENNOMEDIA. KINDLE EDITION.
Deep within ourselves, an essence to our being was created through a relationship with all things and our creator. We might think of it as an unseeable alter, a holy of holy’s, or glimmer of lightness within ourselves. The moment we think we’ve got a grasp as to what it is, it seems to slip through our fingers back into the mysticism of the unknowable. All we can truly hope for is to build upon our relationship with this part of our being while allowing it to mature and hold together our Described Selves.

Our relationship to our deeper selves is where religion and spirituality become practical realities grounding and connecting us to its foundation…

#Disability #Spirituality #CripTheology

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Disability & The Deeper Self