Over-Spiritual Omelets

I enjoy breakfast.

It is my favorite meal of the day, although I have to qualify what I consider breakfast.  Most days I will start off with a bagel, while that is breakfast, it isn’t what I mean when I say, “I love breakfast.”  When I say, “I love breakfast.”  I mean, enjoy a good omelet, toast, meat of some sort, coffee, potatoes, and the works.  I enjoy the food, but when you have a breakfast like that, it breeds wonderful conversations.  Not that a bagel can’t do that for you, but for me to enjoy good food and conversation, man that is an unspeakable joy.  It is almost…spiritual.

At one of my recent breakfast discussion I was discussing, ironically, the concept of something being too spiritualized.  The topic came up in random life discussion and had been presented to him as he was making some judgment calls on decisions.  I had some thoughts and we had some encouraging banter about the matter.  I believe there is a lot of conversation to be had about this topic.

Where does the line exist between spiritual matters and matters that do not have any place for spiritual guidance?  Can we over-spiritualize…anything?  Think about it.

I am not talking about theology from taco’s, however, do I thank God for providing a taco?  Do I eat too many taco’s?  If I eat too many taco’s is that gluttony?  What about my breakfast?  Maybe I should have bagels more often because my breakfasts, if enjoyed too often, can be a liability to my waistline.  Is my self control or lack thereof, reflecting a spiritual matter?  Can what I eat have a spiritual impact?

That is just one example, where does it stop?  

There certainly are perversions to spiritual matters, and that can lead to a tainted form of over spirituality.  Giving up everything to serve a false god is a great form of perverted spirituality.  I dare say, a perverted for of the true God could also lead us down a dangerous path of over-spiritualizing something.

Or is that even over-spiritualizing?  

I mean, over-spiritualizing something that is false does itself have serious spiritual influence, doesn’t it?

This is confusing.

Because I know it is so important for to weigh in on this, note the sarcasm, I have to say it is pretty difficult to over-spiritualize anything.  It may be easy to over-spiritualize if misdirected, however, if we are over-spiritualizing things in truth it may guide us away from being misdirected in the first place.  Rob Bell’s video “Everything is Spiritual” still sends my mind whirling when I think of his vivid and well explained hypothesis of how everything comes back to God.  

We are so one dimensional in our view of who God is, we believe God is this or that because it makes rational sense.  Certainly God is not in my omelet, how could He be?  That would be over-spiritualizing the matter.  However, God is in the conversation that I am having over this omelet that is fueling my body to go about the work of my day.  If I have two omelets that would not be advantageous for my body and would be a sign that I am over indulging in something I should not be and the result would be damaging to my body (especially over a continued amount of time) and would be evidence that there may be something I am lacking in self control, which would be a sign of a spiritual issue.  The conversation I have over these blessed omelet’s is uplifting and gives me opportunity to grow, think, flex, and operate in a way that makes me write blogs for others to read.

I would also like to point out, that bagels can have similar spiritual blessings.  

 The point is this, how can we read Hebrews 11 and see the amazing acts that happen to everyone in that chapter and say that anything is over spiritualized?  How we eat, how we rest, how we don’t rest, how we speak, how we carry our self, how we react, how we blame, how we make decisions, how we create, how we drive, how we…are… is spiritual.  So how well do we do this?  Are we trying to limit God to just certain areas when He deserves more?

Just some thoughts to ponder…

Tomorrow I am going to have a bagel.