spiritual self
life in the theatre of God's grace
By Susan Bowen
What is your passion? What is it that speaks to you and calls you to be, the be as in human beings, the be through which we interact with the world?
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit Priest, theologian, and paleontologist, affirms in a famous quote, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
What is it that draws you to connect, and connects you to your spirit? In spiritual circles, there is a whole field in which you look at your spiritual gifts. It has to do with what it is that makes you come alive, what nourishes you and what excites you. The people around you notice these gifts in you and affirm you, and these come with ease for you to do.
Surprising to some, Vincent Van Gogh originally pursued missionary work, but later found his muse in painting and drawing and became one of the world’s most famous
artists. He tells us, “Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.”
Your spiritual calling is a nourishing passion that speaks to you in such a way with such intensity that you must do it. It calls you to be a co-creator in this world.
 As a collaborator in creation, your spiritual calling is risk-taking, be it as a poet, painter, accountant, reiki master or missionary. You, by the very fact of your being, are worthy and worthy of whatever decent and noble calling that creates a better world in which we live. Do not let fear stop you. Chardin stated, “Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.”
My risk-taking calling came to me in a mystical way. Love and responsibility drew me back home from pursuing an acting and modeling career in Chicago. My mother became ill from what we thought was a stroke but was instead a brain tumor. She later died from a toxic reaction to a drug used to stave off convulsions.
Once back home, I picked up a daily devotional book, which focused on trusting that God is my source of life and, by this explicit trust, to expect a miracle. My miracle was a mystical experience that put me in a place where I received such wisdom and knowledge; I could see the Creative Design everywhere I looked. Even though my mother was dying a horrific death, I experienced euphoric joy and happiness that sustained me and, I believe, could only have been given to me by God.
My connectedness to creation, to others, to God was otherworldly, my “slice of heaven” that eventually called me into the ministry. Love overflowed from my spirit, my being, and continues today. I lived in this mystical experience for months and lusciously, experience slices of it – especially when designing.
My spiritual muse comes to me through my artwork, my floral design. When centered, this calling is a meditative experience for me. Co-creating beauty for the sake of beauty adds value to the world. It creates a sense of peace. When seen through spiritual eyes, this visceral experience creates awe for the viewer and connects with the basic nature of grace – given extravagantly and unsolicited for the sake of well being. I marry my two gracious gifts with designs created to interpret the Holy and speak to the spirit.
You are graced with gifts to explore, to grow, to be called as co-creators in the world - your spiritual being. Follow your passion. It evolves. It nourishes. It excites. It comes with ease. It is affirming. It is spiritual. It is you.
 Susan Bowen’s business, Nature’s Grace Floral Design,
is located in Racine, WI. She sells throughout the metro
Milwaukee and northern Illinois areas. The past four years
she has decorated a room at the Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion
in Milwaukee, and has been featured in various publications
including the Victorian Homes magazine. Susan is an ordained
Lutheran minister of the ELCA and currently serves as a chaplain
at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Milwaukee.
“Nature is the theater of God’s grace.” Theologian Joseph Sittler
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