I have a really great Bible. It's called the "Recovery Devotional Bible" and I absolutely love it. Before I got it several years ago, I wasn't really much of a Bible reader. Growing up, we weren't really encouraged to read the Bible; instead, we were told to listen to the priest during the Sunday service (who didn't even speak in English!) and be sure to stand up/sit down on cue. When I finally got a hold of a Bible to actually look inside of it, I had NO idea what it was saying. Thee, thou, goest, begotten...whatever! It didn't make any sense to me.
As an adult, I found that there were "other" translations of the Bible available besides the King James Version of my youth. Ultimately, I settled in on the New International Version (NIV)...and ultimately found what I use and rely on most now-a-days....my Recovery Devotional Bible.
As a therapist, I am not in the business of judging my clients (or anyone else for that matter!) regarding their spiritual world view--or lack thereof. Yet I am a FIRM believer in the "spiritual" part of our human condition as being a very important component part we must address as part of our own recovery process. We are physical....we are mental...we are emotional...we are social...and we are spiritual beings. Taken altogether, this is what makes us uniquely human and different from our animal counterparts. Animals don't get drunk or high and jump off bridges when they reach the end of their own rope. Animals don't conspire to commit murder because of what so-and-so did to them. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
When asking yourself the "big" questions of life such as "Why am I here?" "What's the point of me being here?" "What happens to me when I die?" "What is love and where did it originate?" "How do I find real inner peace when there is no peace in my life?" "How can I obtain true hope when all seems so bleak?"----these are the issues that go right to the heart of one's spiritual condition.
Without examining what you believe to be true about the universe and your presence in it....you are ignoring a big piece of who you are as a fellow human being. Exploring your spirituality isn't going to kill you; actually, it can represent the greatest gift you've ever received...
