Where to Find Spiritual Treasure (Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor)

On the subject and question of "Doing the Right Thing," these excerpts come from the introduction of Rev. BBT's brilliant 2009 book, An Altar to the World --  

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Where to find Spiritual Treasure

...People seem willing to look all over the place for this treasure. They will spend hours launching prayers into the heavens. They will travel halfway around the world to visit a monastery in India or to take part in a mission trip to Belize. The last place most people look is right under their feet, in the everyday activities, accidents, and encounters of their lives. What possible spiritual significance could a trip to the grocery store have? How could something as common as a toothache be a door to a greater life?

No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggests that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it. The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude of special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need.  

… What is saving my life now is the conviction that there is no spiritual treasure to be found apart from the bodily experiences of human life on earth.

… What is saving my life now is becoming more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world.

… To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger—these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology. All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop, stir. Most of these tasks are so full of pleasure that there is no need to complicate things by calling them holy.

…Whoever you are, you are human. Where you are, you live in the world, which is just waiting for you to notice the holiness in it."

(Easter Season 2008)

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