Evolution & Spiritual Formation

These are Trilobite fossils on our living room mantel. Trilobites flourished in our oceans 250-500 million years ago. They headline this post simply because they're ancient, beautiful, and part of the evolution of life on Earth.

I plan to follow an Evolution Thread for awhile here at Ordinary Mindfulness. I think spiritual formation is a kind of evolution, a very intentional kind of evolution.

Everything that lives lives because life has evolved to this point. We humans have passed on a reasonably sophisticated DNA. We learned how to farm and were able to support larger families and communities. We learned to make weapons in order to hunt and protect ourselves.

In some places we grew prosperous and powerful. Built great cities and eventually great armies. We evolved  so dramatically that we have become dangerous critters.

Dangerous to every form of life on the planet including ourselves.

If we don't learn to evolve purposefully from here on out...we might really mess up God's gift of life forever, at least on this planet.

I saw a poster once that said, None of us is as dumb as all of us. A cartoon that read, We have met the enemy...and it's us!

I get really stoked about spiritual formation because it is a key ingredient in the wise evolution of our race. It's something we can participate in that cultivates a wisdom and an ability to grow toward LIFE--full, enjoyable, sustainable life.