Countdown: Day 38

On March 15, Naked Spirituality will go on sale. Here’s today’s quote:

The root of the word religion is lig, which you see in the word ligament. It means to connect, to join together, to unite, to bring everything together in one body or one wholeness. And of course re means again. So you might say that good religion is about connecting us together again. Most deeply it is about binding us together into one body with God, acknowledging that different religious denominations and families have differing ways of describing and relating to God. It is also about bonding us and uniting us again with one another, and with all creation – the trees and the mountains and the animals, the stars and space and wind. In this light, true religion and naked spirituality are two names for the same thing: seeking vital connection. And seeking vital connection, it turns out, is another name for love. So, we might say, both spirituality and religion are, at their best, two names for love. (Brian D. McLaren, Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in Twelve Simple Words. HarperOne, 2011, Chapter 2)