Saturday, October 17, 1998

Most of us trying to figure out how to use the gift inside us

By Ken Garfield

Knight Ridder Newspapers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- I started developing this theory about spirituality last Sunday morning, somewhere between the offering and the sermon. I know I should have been concentrating on the giving and the preaching, but I hope I'm forgiven since my mind was wandering toward a lesson worth learning.

The lesson is this:

Most of us are spiritual people who have the ability to love, be patient, care about strangers, and rise above whatever harshness comes our way.

Some people show their spirituality every day. They have this amazing ability to wear their inner glow on their sleeve. Others of us aren't quite that strong. We let our spirituality become buried under the rock slides that life brings crashing down on our heads.

We each have a gift inside us, but only some of us have learned how to call on it. The rest of us are still trying to figure out how.

The best part of my job -- and one of the best parts of life -- is rubbing shoulders with people whose spirituality shines through. I keep hoping some of what they have rubs off on me.

There have been obvious examples -- Jimmy Carter's gentleness even while signing 2,000 autographs at a discount warehouse, and Mother Teresa's seriousness even while Charlotte residents treated her like royalty during her 1995 visit to town. With an unmatched sense of purpose, it was as if she was saying, "Who's got time to act famous when there are hungry people to feed."

I've seen spirituality in the grace with which Billy Graham deals with old age, and in the zest with which his son, Franklin, works to keep the family influence alive.

It's not celebrities, though, who move me as much as regular folks.

I think about Evelyn Bonds Ware, an elderly widow from Kannapolis, N.C., whose contentment left her happy to spend each day praying for family, friends, even for strangers. "My dear friend," she told me back in '95, "I'm the richest lady in town. As much as I stay home, I'm so content I can't believe it. Just with life, inner peace, joy. Oh, he's given me a wonderful gift!"

I think about the textile worker who collapsed to the concrete floor of Independence Arena the other night, "slain in the spirit" of a Pentecostal revival. Who wouldn't want what he has -- spirituality that lets him lose himself and his troubles in the embrace of simple faith, even while the praise band blares on.

I think about Cantor Linda Shepherd at Temple Beth El and how she brought such lyrical warmth to the recent High Holy Days prayers. Spirituality comes in many forms. Hers comes in her singing voice.

I think about all the people I've written about in 23 years of newspaper work -- people who have been victimized by tragedy or loss and yet acted as if they've gained something for their troubles. Strength maybe, or a deeper belief that all things work for good.

I think about them and wonder why we can't have what they have.

The answer is that we already have what they have. It's just a question of using it.

It helps to look to others for inspiration. Spiritual people are the real role models. But all we really need to do is tune out the world and tune into our own strengths.

Somewhere between the giving and the preaching last Sunday, I started to understand that.

That's half the battle.

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(Ken Garfield is the religion editor at The Charlotte Observer. Write to him at: The Charlotte Observer, 600 S. Tryon St., Charlotte, NC 28232.)

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(c) 1998, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).

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