I'm all for self-improvement. When someone learns to play the piano, play golf, balance on a beam or balance a checkbook, I'm the first with a standing ovation.

But "spiritual" self-improvement is another matter. Focusing on myself, on my humility, on my faithfulness, seems so ... well, so "self-ish."

So I try to go at it from another angle.

I see it like this.

When I was in high school, the boys from Honeyville were some of the best wrestlers in the state. The Hunsakers, Binghams, Okis and Aokis were like little rhinos. They could hoist a house.

This was back before athletes went in for much weight training. Those Honeyville kids got their muscles -- and their all-state titles -- from bucking bales of hay, pounding fence posts and lifting metal milk cans.



Their focus was on other things. They wanted to get some work done, improve the farm and make a contribution. They looked beyond themselves. The muscles they developed were a byproduct. They just kind of grew while the guys were busy doing other things.

That's how I look at personal spirituality.

The best way to get it is as a byproduct from doing other things -- from helping others, serving your neighbor or volunteering at church.

Keep the focus off yourself and good things will come your way.

Keep your focus on other people and your own spirituality will quietly improve.

Jesus once compared the Spirit to the wind. He said it went where it would. The Spirit was a thing in motion.

And that's how I think of it.

The Spirit always flows, it doesn't "puddle."

Just as flowing water is cleaner and brighter than standing water, when the Spirit moves through us into the lives of others, it cleanses and brightens us as it passes through.

When we try to well it up inside of us, the Spirit stagnates. It grows stale. We become like the Pharisees -- obsessed with our own worthiness and spiritual well-being.

Don't hoard the Spirit like electricity in a car battery.

Be the jumper cables.

Let it pass through you.

When you bless the lives of others, you will get unseen benefits.

Worry about others.

Let God worry about you.

Or, in other words, if you want more spiritual "muscle," don't fret over the size of your quads and biceps. Go out and buck a few bales, build a barn, haul some heifers.

Try to extend the influence of God in the world.

Don't wring your hands over your own spirituality.

Put your hands to work.

Your spiritual muscles -- like the muscles of those Honeyville grapplers -- will take care of themselves.