spirituality through a telescope

In my Sunday sermon I shared some personal observations about how my path to spirituality has shifted lately away from a primarily intellectual/theological approach, toward a bodily, physical, and experiential spirituality.

For one paragraph I listed the ways I'm most connected with my spirituality, cycling, exercise at the gym, and singing. And then I listed several other options that people might think of as a spiritual practice. As I was writing the manuscript I included looking through a telescope as a possible spiritual practice. But when I preached the sermon and got to that line "looking through a telescope" seemed out of place among the other suggestions on my list, and not a very illuminating example of the point I was trying to make. So I left it out.

After the service I spoke to one of the visitors and he told me how much the sermon had spoken to him. And in particular he was impressed that when I got to the point of listing several spiritual practice possibilities he noticed that every time he thought of something that he does in his own life that I would then immediately say it in my sermon, almost as though I were reading his mind. He named several examples, and then he said, "But really for me, the time that I feel most spiritual is when I'm looking through my telescope."