advice | my journey | spirituality in life
Speaking to First Years
First year students, make sure you have good, close relationships.
Don't buy into the rush of university. Make time for friends and the important things in life. If you don't prioritize them now you won't when you're done. It gets worse.
Be open to thinking about God. When there are questions, put on a critical mind. Don't sit passively in class.
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My spiritual journey
At university I realized I couldn't live the "perfect" life. I couldn't keep up this facade of success and control. It was at this point of realization that I started considering my need for divine intervention - I needed God to help me.
Coming to this realization of my need also required coming to a point of humility. At this point, I knew some major changes needed to happen in my life.
First, I had to make a choice to recognize that I was not the centre ego of the universe. By this I mean, I needed to change my whole reason for existence - instead of building it around myself, I needed to start building around God. As I began to discover how God created me, loved me, gave up himself for me, my doubtfulness of God's presence began to subside and I started to the believe in the realness of his presence.
Second, I began confronting the feelings of guilt that I kept for years. I always felt guiltly for the wrong I knew I did against others and God. And the guilt was constricting. In fact, it was one of the factors that drove me into isolation. Guilt caused me to be scared of people and ultimately, scared of God. It was a fear of the judgment they might have about me if they learned about my hidden life, my true identity.
But as I became more familiar with the person of Jesus I learned how he promised to help me overcome my guilt and self-judgment because he suffered and died for all my wrong doings.
I asked myself, "Why would Jesus do this for me?" For someone who struggles with guilt, accepting other people's love is one of the biggest challenges. But what was more a challenge was accepting that God loved me. How could I possibly accept the love from God when I didn't accept myself?
The conclusion I have come to is that God deeply loves me and wants to have a relationship with me.
I continue to be in awe of this act of love - I've never met anyone who was willing to do such a thing for me, or for anyone else.
Although, in many ways, having a relationship with Jesus has eased the torment of guilt and shame, certain circumstances still provoke those feelings to come back. There still remains a strong undercurrent to try to be perfect.
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The practicality of spirituality
Spirituality does not have to be impractical. Spirituality provides a support structure for your life that brings fulfillment and understanding. Your spirit is the core of who you are.
A lot of people have money, popularity or scholastic ability, but don't have a good spirit. Your identity is deeper that your abilities, marks or your approval rating.
When your spirit is at peace with God, you don't have to worry or fight to promote your ego. Your spirit finds peace and confidence in what God thinks of you, regardless of what people think of you.
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More about Corey . . .
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