matter and spirit

One good thing about having been converted to Christianity partly via a miracle that was entirely internal, that took place in the midst of great external hardship, is that you are much less likely to make the mistake of thinking that the Christian life is about things going "well". You probably won't make the mistake of thinking that being a Christian guarantees wealth, health, good relationships, etc -- all the things that people normally pray for simply because we are human.
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The gifts of the Spirit -- God's deepest and truest gifts -- are independent of external circumstances. This is not to say that they cannot be given concurrently with those other, more sought-after gifts. Neither am i denigrating those other gifts. i'm just saying that the realm of the spirit is something quite quite different from the physical world that we can see and experience, and we forget this at our peril. i think much that is wrong with Christianity today -- both within the Church itself, and also, in people's perceptions of Christianity and the relationship between Christianity and the world outside the Church -- can be traced to our mistaking material blessings for spiritual ones, and forgetting that the ultimate goal of our faith is spiritual, and not of this world. Such very human mistakes to make.
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