We’re talking this season about the ways that spirituality is experienced and expressed in the personal dimension.

Spirituality has a communal dimension, which we talked about during the fall.  That’s the spirituality of worshipping together, sharing fellowship together, learning from each other, teaching each other.

And some forms of spirituality have a public dimension.  That’s the dimension that spirituality takes when it engages with the world.  Social Justice work.  Charity.  Political activism.  Mission work.  Unitarian Universalism is perhaps most distinguished from other religious paths by the large degree with which we engage in the public dimensions of spirituality.

In fact, Unitarian Universalists so associate our spirituality with the public dimension that we can be a little dismissive of personal spirituality.

It’s often an issue amid our congregations.  One camp wants a church active in public spirituality.  Another camp wants their church to be about personal spirituality.  One groups wants worship every week that engages with political rights and international issues and church programs that organize demonstrations and letter-writing campaigns and direct action.  The other group wants meditative, healing worship services that address theology and personal psychology and church programs that feed the soul.  One group wants a faith that changes the world.  The other group wants to change themselves.

But the truth is that both sides are important to a complete spirituality.  We cannot heal the world if we don’t tend to ourselves.  And a spiritual healthy person cannot be unmoved by the suffering of the world.

The Unitarian theology begins with the individual.  Unitarian theology praises the capacity of the human individual.  We are good.  We are wise.  We are strong.  Part of the task of spiritual development is for each of us, working within ourselves, to develop those individual gifts.  We achieve salvation by becoming the perfected people that each of us can become, by listening to that inner divine voice and following its lead.

But we are good and wise and strong not for our own perfection, but for the purpose of perfecting the world.  The salvation we seek is not a private bliss, but a heaven on earth; not merely a life transformed but a world transformed.

Our Universalist theology says the same.  We are loved of God as individuals.  Every person is important.  But every person is important, meaning that no person is saved unless all are saved.  Our work isn’t done once we’ve found happiness, our spiritual work continues until all have found happiness.

So a complete spirituality includes both focus on the world beyond ourselves and also work on the person within ourselves.  This is why we spend this year on all three dimensions of spirituality:  communal, personal, and public.  All are required for a complete spirituality.  All are required for salvation.

The task of achieving personal spiritual health requires first that we examine ourselves sufficiently to discover who we really are as individuals.

I’ve suggested that our fundamental defining characteristic is our values.  Everything else about us is constantly changing:  our bodies, our ideas and memories and opinions, the circumstances of our life, our relationships, our job.  But our values carry through the changes of life with us.  Our values provide a constant guidepost.  All the myriad changes we go through in life can be read as successive attempts to more fully come into contact with the underlying values that form our stable core.

So, if you’re clear about your core values, the next step toward spiritual health is to deliberately create a life in which those values can flourish.  I suggested that from a short list of your core values you could then, for each value, write down one or two actions that you could take that would bring more focus in your life on that value.

Last week I shared my core values of creativity, knowledge, physical health, justice, and community.  So for each value I could think about adding some action to my life that would honor those values.

For creativity – a commitment to find regular time in my life for drawing and composing.

For knowledge – a commitment to read more.  Or to hire a tutor again to help me work on my Spanish.

For physical health – to get back to going to the gym at least twice a week.  And to get my bicycle down and start riding again.

And so on for my other values.

But if you’ve done that much with me so far you may have noticed at this point a problem.

Your life is already full.  Everyone’s life is already full.  It’s often said that we only have 24 hours in a day.  But it’s also true that we always have 24 hours in a day – so they must always be filled with something.  On the rare occasions space does open up for us it’s quickly filled up again. 

So the problem is, if I’m supposed to add new actions to my life – when exactly am I supposed to add them?  Drawing and composing and studying with a Spanish tutor and going to the gym and riding my bike take time.  That’s at least one full day each week of adding new things.  But there are only 7 days in my week – just as there are in yours.  With all my good intentions and deliberate plans I cannot create an 8-day week.

So, of course, you can’t add anything new, unless you are willing to remove something old.  You don’t add a day to make 8.  Instead you clear out a day by giving up a day’s worth of stuff you’re currently doing and then re-fill that day with the new stuff.

This means not only careful thinking about what you want to do that you aren’t currently doing.  It also means careful thinking about what you are currently doing that you don’t really need to be doing.

Creating a deliberate life means saying a clear “No” to some possibilities, as much as it means making a clear “Yes” to others.

It means asking, in my case, “What in my life doesn’t contribute to my core values of creativity, knowledge, physical health, justice and community?”  And which of those activities, then, am I willing to say “No” to, so I can make room for the stuff that I really want for my life?

And here is where this exercise gets really tough.  And this is why so many people who try to do this kind of goal-setting and intention-making, and new year’s resolutions this time of year end up failing.  They aren’t willing to say “No” to an old behavior in order to make room for the new behavior.

But the problem for these folks is not a lack of will, which is the way this failing is usually characterized.  The problem is that they aren’t being honest about their core values.

This is where it gets uncomfortable.

I have to ask myself.  If creativity is really a core value for me, then why do I have to create a goal, and set an intention, or make a resolution about spending more time on my creative pursuits this year?  If creativity is a core value – why aren’t I already spending my time on being creative?  If physical health is really a core value of mine then why haven’t I gone to the gym in three months?  Why haven’t I ridden my bicycle in over a year?

What does it really mean to say that creativity is a core value for me – but I’m not doing anything creative?  What does it really mean to say that physical health is a core value for me but that when it comes time to go to the gym I so often find something else to do?

Here’s where it gets uncomfortable.  Maybe I’m deceiving myself about what my core values really are.  Maybe it’s actually that other thing that I so often choose to do instead of going to the gym that is really my core value.

And here’s where it gets uncomfortable.  Probably that other thing I choose to do isn’t as noble as going to the gym.  Maybe being physically fit is an ideal I think I should value – but what I really value is something less noble.  Maybe what I really value are the frivolous things that I actually choose to spend my time on.

I’m not going to share a list of my personal time-wasters because it’s too embarrassing.  But I’m reminded of a joke I heard once from Zach Galifinakis when he did the opening monologue on Saturday Night Live.  He said, “I’m really into pilates.  And by ‘pilates’ I mean waffles.”

Hmm.  Have we listed pilates as our core value, when we really mean waffles?

And, of course, if your core value really is waffles, then no wonder you’re going to fail at trying to substitute pilates for waffles in your life.  Of course waffles are going to win.  Waffles should win.  Waffles is who you really are. 

We started this series with the idea that spiritual health isn’t about changing who you are; it’s about uncovering who you really are, and then becoming more of who you are.  The theological idea was that at your core, the person you really are, is that person the Unitarians claim is connected to the divine ideals.  At your core you are that good and wise and strong person ready to live a life of personal joy and be a maker of justice, peace, and love for the world.  But maybe at your core it’s really waffles, and it will always be waffles.

I told you this would get uncomfortable.

So this is why we tackle the question of personal spirituality during the season of Lent.  We’re not actually in Lent yet.  Lent will start on February 18 with Ash Wednesday.  So consider this a warning and a wake-up, and a chance to do some preparation.

Lent is all about personal examination.  Lent is about honest self-evaluation.  Lent is about confronting those less-than-ideal parts of ourselves.  Lent is about telling the truth about ourselves, even if it’s uncomfortable.

Now the conclusion that Christians are supposed to come away with, after doing the Lenten self-examination is that there is nothing they can do to perfect the person they now see is irredeemably broken.  We are not good enough, strong enough, or wise enough to save ourselves or others.  And so at the end of Lent the Christian comes to Easter prepared to give themselves over to the salvation of Christ.  In other words, after the “come-to-Jesus” honesty of Lent, the Christian comes-to-Jesus at Easter.

So for Unitarians, the honest, self-examination of Lent is useful to our personal spirituality.  Honesty is still the best policy.  But the conclusion needs to be radically different.

For us, our honest self-examination might also show that we are not actually entirely good, completely strong, forever wise.  We are not ready to claim a life of personal spiritual health.  And in our current condition our efforts to create a world of love, peace, and justice are likely to come up short.  That’s the truth, for Unitarian Universalists as much as for other people.

But where other religions would therefore claim:  “Congratulations, you’ve now learned the uncomfortable but honest truth about the human condition, and therefore the way out is to rely on a non-human supernatural savior.”  Unitarian Universalists, along with some other religions say:  “Congratulations, having admitted the uncomfortable but honest truth about your current condition you’re now prepared to take meaningful action toward working your way to something better.”  Not “give up” for Lent.  But “get going”

In other words, having dug down and discovered that at our core we’re really just waffles.  Unitarian Universalism says, no you’re not.  Look again.  If all you’re finding is waffles, you haven’t dug deep enough.  Because at your core (and this is the core of our faith) is not the flawed human being who prefers laziness to productive action, but the person of inherent worth and dignity who has all they need to save themselves and save the world.  At your core is not the person of despair, and pettiness, and selfishness, and sloth, and the person of anger and violence and weakness, and the person of evil thoughts and sometimes evil actions, but the person that you need to be, and that all of us can be, who will save ourselves and save the world. 

That’s our faith.  It’s a proposition rather than something we can prove.  It’s faith that we really have what it takes to make salvation for ourselves.  But it’s your faith.  Something about the affirmation of our inherent possibility for perfection led you to this faith.  Something inside you knows your potential, knows your worth, and knows your strength.  It is that something inside you need to connect with again, to move deep down past the examination of your failings to find that perfectable person at the true core of your self.  It is that deep faith that will inspire you to choose your ideals over your present reality and become the person who manifests your core values.

The Christian begins the season of Lent by looking forward to the salvation of Christ that is coming at Easter.  As you begin this process of making deliberate choices in your life.  As you begin to choose to give up some of the presently attractive but ultimately less than worthy actions you spend you life on.  As you begin to add into your life that stuff that (come on!) would really make your life joyful and satisfying and “saved.”  The strategy is to look to the end before you begin.

In Unitarian Universalist theology you need to be your own Jesus, in a way.  So the question is, “What’s your Easter?”  What does resurrection look like for you?  What’s your new life going to be?”

Here is the pre-Lenten meditation that I want you to do over the next couple of weeks.  Here is the question to sit with.  “What would my life look like if I actually lived the values that I claim are the most important to me?”  Can I see myself living that life?  Can I imagine how I would feel?  Can I estimate the joy I would feel if I spent my time on the activities I imagine for myself.  What would I accomplish?  How proud would I be?  How much more would I like myself, and others would admire and appreciate me, if I could actually become that person I feel called to be from my core?

Then, holding that vision in your mind and heart, let that vision, draw you to it.  Imagine a long rubber band hooked around that vision in the future and hooked around yourself where you are now.  And irresistibly, the band pulls you toward the vision.  Every day a little closer.  A little more pilates and fewer waffles.  A little more peace, love and justice.  A little more creative.  A few more trips to the gym.  A weekly appointment with a tutor.  A good book instead of a bad episode of reality TV.  Instead of an afternoon in your apartment an afternoon in the sun feeling that solar power of Spring.

Once you’re so clear about the vision that you can feel yourself falling fully in love with the person you are going to be at the end of this journey, then you can look down at your feet and take the first step.  Begin at the end.  What a glorious place to be.