A SPIRITUAL ADJUSTMENT

Foto: Marangeli Franco

By Dinorah Pérez-Rementería

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight,” the Bible says. Wouldn’t it be healthful and freeing if our words and thoughts were aligned with God’s spirit? I am sure we would not have any trouble articulating and living out His much needed “message” for us, no matter where we come from or with what languages we communicate. I believe we would also understand each other perfectly, if only at a spiritual level. Unfortunately, indecision, deception, misunderstanding, vagueness, cynicism, brokenness and other similar issues affect us every day. So, it should not surprise us that very often we tend to look at people through a “broken” lens, projecting in ways that can undermine our experience of ourselves and others, including those whom we love and who know us best.

In chapter 6 of the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul recommends that we put on the armor of God, “for we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world (…)”. Sometimes the worst of enemies hides within us in the form of deceptive, vague and broken thinking. I don’t hold the opinion that people necessarily wish to develop or become a means for spreading deception, but they are susceptible to fall into a deceptively mental domain in the same way they may suffer from a spinal misalignment. That is why we need endless God adjustments all throughout our lives. A God adjustment can serve to correct, strengthen and activate our spiritual backbone, a beautiful and indispensable part of us. And sure, we may feel a little uncomfortable and naturally ashamed as God works on the scoliosis of our souls, but knowing him as our most committed friend, the chiropractor of our hearts, so to speak, makes each adjustment session a looked-for opportunity.

I love being adjusted by God, and I definitely prefer God’s diagnosis on me above any other account. God’s view of people is not in itself subject to the mediation of brokenness, deception and misunderstanding, but it originates from a spirit of faith, truth, love, compassion and an immeasurable knowledge of us -our strengths and weaknesses. Human beings make mistakes. We are susceptible to deception and misinterpretation. What are we to do when we have been deceived by our own imaginations? Should we allow us to imagine nothing else anymore? Should we ask others, especially our students or the younger people around us, to stop dreaming, to quit envisaging hopeful things in their minds? We all have failed so many times in so many different contexts that the thought of letting God’s spirit adjust and build us up again seems insane. Well, it is not. God knows us better than anybody else. When I think of giving up my dreams, I am always reminded -whether by looking at my phone clock, or a car tag, or the gas prices at the pump, or the duration of a YouTube video- of my favorite Bible verse: “And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman.”

I am not really sure what a “virtuous woman” is, but I have learned to take what God gives me simply because, as Billy Joel says, it is free. Needless to say, God may have health-giving, loving verses for you as well. Let him rehabilitate you. God’s adjustments allow us to keep pressing forward, no matter how many times we experience failure. As a friend of mine says, if we want to be happy, we must give up perfectionism and learn to accept our limitations so that we can go beyond them. We are not so proficient as to never commit a blunder in life. If we were, what would we need spiritual adjustments for? Plus, the more we acknowledge our own weaknesses, the more able we will be to look at others through a considerate, adjusted lens. We would also be more available to assimilate the unparalleled, restorative and assuring love of God: a love of unthinkable dimensions which, by its very nature, can transform our brokenness and failures into something marvelous.