Today is my day for surgery. Though it is only a minor surgery, I am surrendering my will and my life to a surgeon. The surgeon is a man I've only met once and, for this moment, he is a power greater than myself whose hands that I trust completely. I trust him because he has this piece of parchment framed and hanging on the wall of his office that guarantees he is a qualified physician and surgeon within the community of his medical vocation. However, I am trusting that he, and his team of assistants and anesthesiologists, will do for me what I am unable to do for myself. There are those in the spiritual community that would say it is a blasphemy to rely on the hands of man over the hands of God but it would be absurd for me to, and hardly none but the most extreme would, expect God to do for me what my fellow human beings can also perform. If this is true in the physical realm, why then should it not be true for spiritual matters.

Just as it would be ludicrous for me to perform a minor hernia repair on my own, or to rely on a quack, it would be detrimental, and quite insane, to expect myself to heal my spiritual body without the expert help of a spiritual guide. I don’t mean to say that in general we can’t take care of our spiritual body. On my own, I can take care of the physical needs of my body by choosing a healthy diet and exercising wisely (in a gym or at home). I can also choose wisely what I feed my spirit and practice mindfulness in meditation at home alone or in a group. For more intensive care I need the hands of an expert in spiritual health. I do this to live a healthy spiritual life so that I can go out and perform productively with mindfulness the challenges of the day.

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