Choosing Authenticity: Religion Is Not Enough

By Richard N. Southworth

This book is about Choosing Authenticity. It is about developing a unique personal spiritual practice that will lead to growth, transformation, and conversion of heart. It is about discovering who we are called to be and incarnating those discoveries into the way we actually experience and live our day-to-day lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781617928796

Book preview

Passion is what we are most deeply curious about, most hungry for, will most hate to lose in life. It is the most desperate wish we need to yell down the well of our lives. It is whatever we pursue merely for its own sake, what we study when there are no tests to take, what we create though no one may ever see it. It makes us forget that the sun rose and set, that we have bodily functions and personal relations that could use a little tending. It is what we’d do if we weren’t worried about consequences, about money, about making anybody happy but ourselves. It is whatever we could be tempted to sell our souls for in order to have a hundred extra years just to devote to it, whatever fills us with the feeling poet Anne Sexton was referring to when she said that "when I’m writing, I know I’m doing the thing I was born to do. It is what matters most, whether we’re doing it or not.[1]

Gregg Levoy

This book is such a passion!

Photography by Kate McFarland

[1]Levoy, Gregg, Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life, (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1997), p. 69.

Forward

Photograph by Kate McFarland

We could all take the vow of obedience, even as we pursue freedom and individuality. Obedience means to listen closely to others for words of direction. Only in an ego-mad world do we think that destiny is revealed in our own will and thought.

You know something that I don’t know about where I want to be. If I just listen to myself, I will be trapped in a circle. If you don’t speak to me about what you see and suspect, then I won’t know the direction in which I want to go.[1]

Thomas Moore

FR. J. PATRICK FOLEY, PH.D.

Parish Mission and Retreat Leader Sacramento, California

Photograph by Kevin Lahey

The search for meaning, purpose, and direction in life has been the object of thinkers great and small, well known and obscure, throughout the history of human thought. Why? Because there seems to be an intrinsic awareness that there is more to our lives than simple existence, more than the tasks that fill our days or the goals that guide our ambitions.

However this sense of the more than, what some writers call transcendence, may become confused with the search for power, prestige, position, possessions, and pride that dominates so much of contemporary western culture. Perhaps it is only when the emptiness of those pursuits becomes apparent that the hunger for authentic transcendence can re-emerge and re-direct one’s life.

For some people, it is a time of natural disaster or human catastrophe that brings them to the realization of the lack of ultimate meaning in their lives. For others, the process may be more subtle: an inner restlessness, a chronic dis-ease, an inability to satisfy transcendent hunger by any of the more typically chosen methods.

Richard Southworth is such a man: restless, searching, unsatisfied. His hunger for transcendence – which, for the believer, is ultimately a hunger for God – has driven him into, and out of, churches, various religious organizations and activities, leaving him frustrated but still searching. Having been his friend, occasional fellow-traveler, and frequent sounding board for almost thirty years, I have often thought that this search possesses him more than he possesses it – and that very quality is proof enough of its authenticity. The hound of heaven, to borrow Francis Thompson’s image, pursues us all, whether we recognize it or not. Wisdom is found in that recognition, and in the desire and willingness to remove whatever obstacles stand in the way of such a pursuit.

This book represents what wisdom Richard has found – so far – in his determination to persevere in his search. The journey is uniquely his, but at the same time contains many foundational elements that other searchers will recognize as being necessary and grace-filled for themselves.

If you are such a person – restless, searching, unsatisfied – you have found a worthy companion. Wherever you are now in your search, this book will not leave you there. Prepare to be challenged.

Patrick Foley

Photograph by Richard Southworth

R. DREXEL RAYFORD, PH.D.

Senior Pastor, Walnut Grove Baptist Church Mechanicsville, Virginia

Photograph by Melissa Rayford

Iwas asked once by a church member to run a 10k race with him. He knew I was a cyclist, so when I told him I hadn’t trained to run a 10k race, he pointed out that while my leg muscles might be strained, I at least had the aerobics for the challenge. I demurred and he challenged and we went through this cycle about three times until my macho ego finally won out and I agreed to run. Besides, my friend was about 10 years older than I which gave me a smug expectation that I would at least beat his time.

I finished the race - barely. It was pure torture, and my friend, despite my advantage of relative youth, finished well ahead of me. He awaited my stumbling arrival at the finish line clapping his hands and laughing that the old guy had finally made it. My bicycle riding muscles had simply not been sufficient to the demands of running. Those muscles were still rather weak and unaccustomed to the stress suddenly imposed on them. They quickly gave up what strength they had. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, really. Quite obviously, I had not trained for the event.

As I go about my pastoral ministry, I often see the spiritual equivalent of my attempt to run a 10k race without training. Not long ago, I visited a woman facing her last days. She has struggled with a cruel disease since she was a little girl and now that she has grown older, complications from that disease will end her life. A profound feeling of injustice permeates her reflections and as we discussed how to come to terms with her situation she said, My Sunday School faith is unequal to this spiritual challenge. She finds herself required to run a race for which she professes she has had little training.

In this book that Richard Southworth has crafted for us, you will find the kind of training which will help you develop deeper spiritual strength and take you beyond your Sunday School faith. In fact, it’s my firm belief that when the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians and said that becoming an adult required him to put childish ways behind, and when he urged the Roman Christians to be transformed by the renewing of their minds, he was talking about the ancient methodology Richard makes available to the reader of these pages.

If you are someone who wants more than hearsay religion, or who has questions which churchianity has never even addressed, or feels a thirst that no doctrine or confessions could quench, undertake the process described here. I think a discovery of your True Self awaits. And, in the words of Thomas Merton, when you find your True Self, you find God.

Drexel Rayford

Photograph by Richard Southworth

[1] Moore, Thomas, Meditations: On the Monk Who Dwells in Daily Life, (New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1994), p.12.

About This Endeavor

Laying the Groundwork

Photograph by Richard Southworth

Our deepest desire is for our active lives to actually become more and more an authentic expression of who we are and who we are called to be by that Mysterious Other we call God. We long for spiritual practice that actually moves us forward on our own unique Journey Toward Spiritual Maturity.

Through the reflections in this book my heart reaches out to all who struggle with life, wrestle with the Divine Mystery we call God, and strive to live an authentic life. My desire is that these reflections might, in some small way, help you along your path, and give you encouragement and comfort in your quest. My own journey has been fraught with inner turmoil, roadblocks, unproductive and misconceived side trips, and procrastination. It has also been filled with much growth, transformation, and joy. If by sharing my experience and what I have learned I can help just one pilgrim along the road of life, all the work will have been worthwhile.

Richard Southworth

About the Author

Richard N. Southworth, M.A.

Photograph by Winnie Southworth

Ilive in Mechanicsville, Virginia with my wife Winnie and my son Mark. My oldest daughter, Teresa Parr, lives a few blocks away with her husband Julian and their three children, Nathan, Daniel, and Rachel. My youngest daughter, Michelle Evans, also lives nearby.

I received a Bachelor's degree in General Studies with concentrations in Religious Studies, Psychology, and the Administration of Justice and Public Safety from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. I also have a Master of Art's degree in Formative Spirituality from the Institute of Formative Spirituality at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have considerable teaching experience including college courses, church seminars, retreats, Marriage Encounter weekends, and presentations at training academies and professional conferences.

My experience includes being a Trooper, Sergeant, and Special Agent with the Virginia State Police, Administrator of a non-denominational retreat center, Investigator with the Virginia Office of the Public Defender, Criminal Investigator with the Virginia Office of the Attorney General, and Investigator and Special Investigations Manager for a national health insurance company. This broad based education and experience finds its way into my writing and teaching. It leads me to focus on those foundational spiritual truths that cut across both religious and secular traditions. It provides a crucial balance between spirituality and the real world of people, events, and things. I am currently retired and writing and teaching about the spiritual life.

About Don Quixote and Windmills

The Quest

Don Quixote[1] was on a quest. It is said that he was mad as he put on his armor, mounted his unlikely steed, left his home, and went about the countryside with his sidekick, Sancho Panza, tilting at windmills and taking on seemingly imaginary foes.

And yet—and yet, he had a vision that individual people could be more than they thought they could be, and that the world could be a better place. However ill-conceived his plan, however unlikely a knight errant, however ill-equipped he was for this quest, and whatever the price, he felt called to do his part to make that vision a reality.

Image from unidentified note card.

I identify with Don Quixote and his quest—his Impossible Dream. Sometimes my own efforts to continue on the spiritual journey and to teach and write about spirituality seem just as ill-conceived. I often feel just as unlikely a knight errant, and just as ill-equipped for this quest. And yet, like Don Quixote, I know that following this quest; pursuing my own Impossible Dream as best I can, is the only thing that is enough for me in this life.

The Impossible Dream[2]

To dream the impossible dream

To fight the unbeatable foe

To bear with unbearable sorrow

To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong

To love pure and chaste from afar

To try when your arms are too weary

To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest

To follow that star

No matter how hopeless

No matter how far

To fight for the right

Without question or pause

To be willing to march into Hell

For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true

To this glorious quest

That my heart will lie peaceful and calm

When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this

That one man, scorned and covered with scars

Still strove with his last ounce of courage

To reach the unreachable star

About the Practice

Approaching This Material

The reflections in this book are intended as material for your own personal spiritual practice and to facilitate your own personal growth and conversion of heart. They are designed for what I have come to call The Practice which involves centering, reading, meditation, prayer, contemplation, and action. These practices will be explored in greater detail throughout the book, but as a beginning consider these guidelines.

Centering: Take a few moments to mark the transition into your time apart. Say a prayer, read a short passage, and sit in silence for a time.

Reading: Focus on the text and skip over the questions. First read the reflection as a whole, and then consider each section individually.

Meditation: Choose one of the questions that speaks to you and use analysis and reason to apply the question to your own journey.

Prayer: In prayer ask for guidance, strength, and courage for your journey,

Contemplation: Be silent and open and listen for that sacred inner voice that calls you to growth and conversion of heart.

Action: Consider how what you have discovered in your time apart can be incarnated into your active life.

You can return to the reflection by focusing on each of the different questions.

Come Holy Spirit of God.

Rise up in me.

Fill me with your presence.

Open me to your wisdom and your guidance,

And your strength and your courage.

Grant me the grace of your love,

And your peace, and your joy.

Come with me into this special time,

Go with me as I take on this day.

About the Pictures

Attention to Something Deeper

Words are only one way to communicate. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that may be especially true when we try to communicate the deeper aspects of the spiritual journey. I can share with you in many words about the deep inner longing I feel for that Mysterious Other I call God, but in the end there is something in that longing that the words can never capture. Yet, when I see that picture of me standing on the mountaintop in Alaska, gazing out into the distance, I am reminded of something deeper; something more profound. I have no words for that. It is my sincere desire that the pictures help to communicate that something deeper that the words in this volume can never quite express.

Photograph by Teresa Parr

As you work your way through this volume pay careful attention to the words. Meditate on them and listen for a response from that sacred inner voice. Pay close attention to the pictures as well. Stop a while on each picture and give it whatever time it needs to speak to you of that something deeper; that something that is beyond words. Let the pictures speak what the words can never quite capture. Listen here too for that sacred inner voice that calls you forth on The Journey Toward Spiritual Maturity.

About No BS Spirituality for the Rest of Us

Definitions

Iwill speak more about No BS Spirituality for the Rest of Us later in this volume. In The Introduction I will share the story of how that title came about, and in the reflections that follow I will talk more about the underlying meaning. Here I simply want to define the term so you will have at least a preliminary understanding of the basic underlying presuppositions behind this volume.

Photograph by Michelle Evans

No BS Spirituality is spirituality that:

• quiets the inner turmoil of compulsive thoughts, emotions, and impulses that typically drives our lives,

and,