What is the Goal of Spirituality?
Feb 05, 2026Summary
Do you ever feel like you are going through the religious motions—checking off the prayer and scripture boxes—but still feel buried by the weight of the world? If you treat your spiritual habits like chores, you might be missing the point entirely. In this deep and moving episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson and advisory board member Amy Johnson ask the fundamental question: What is the goal of spirituality?
We strip away the checklist to reveal the "why" behind the worship. Amy shares a raw, honest perspective on how spiritual connection is her survival mechanism against the mountains of depression and emotional exhaustion. We explore the "Pendulum Principle," explaining why deep sorrow is actually a prerequisite for deep joy, and how to find God in the "still, small voice" amidst a noisy life. Amy also shares a tender personal story of how a moment of silence during a sunrise drive allowed her to hear a prompting that changed the end of her father's life. If you are ready to move from religious exhaustion to a life-giving relationship with God, this episode will help you find the silence you need to hear Him.
Episode Takeaways
- The Ultimate Goal: According to John 17:3, the goal of spirituality isn't just to be "good"; it is to know God and Jesus Christ. As we know them, we naturally want to become like them.
- Moving Mountains of Depression: Amy shares that her "what's in it for me" is survival. Spirituality is the tool she uses to protect herself from being "buried emotionally" by the world. It provides the power to move the mountains of mental health struggles.
- The Pendulum Principle: Your capacity for sorrow digs the well for your capacity for joy. If you are swinging deep into grief or hardship, remember that the pendulum will swing back just as far into joy.
- The Power of Stillness: We live in a noisy world. Amy’s story of turning off the radio to watch a sunrise proves that silence is often the only way to hear the critical promptings that guide us to where we need to be (like making it home for her father’s passing).
FREE Resource
Are you ready to find the silence you need to hear God's voice? Download our FREE Guide to Goal Setting. It includes the "Sacred Brainstorm" to help you reorient yourself to the Light. 👉 Download the Guide Here: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/offers/WyaLn2gS/checkout
Reflection Questions
- Be honest: Is your current spiritual life a checklist or a lifeline? How does viewing it as "survival" against the world change your motivation?
- Think of a time you experienced deep sorrow. Did you eventually experience a "swing" back to deep joy (The Pendulum Principle)?
- When was the last time you drove your car in total silence? What might God be trying to say to you in the stillness?
- Read John 17:3. Do you feel like you know God, or do you just know about Him?
Transcript
Tamara K. Anderson
00:00:00.640 - 00:02:50.750
Do you ever feel yourself going through all the religious motions of connecting to God, but still feeling discouraged and buried by the weight of the world? We often treat our spiritual habits like chores on a checklist, but if we do that, sometimes we miss the point of the whole exercise.
Today we're asking the deep question, what is the goal of spirituality?
And by the end of today's episode, you will understand the why behind the worship, including how to use your spiritual connection to move the literal mountains of depression and sorrow in your life. We're helping you solve the pain of emotional exhaustion by showing you how to turn back to the light even in your darkest hours. Stay tuned.
Ordinary Women Extraordinary Faith When God calls, we say yes. The Arise Women of God Podcast
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God Podcast. I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson, and joining me today is Amy Johnson, a member of our Women warriors of Light Advisory Board. And we're going to dive deep into the reason for spiritual goals today.
First, we'll define the ultimate goal, truly knowing God and becoming like him. Second, we'll tackle the what's in it for me factor and how spirituality protects you from being buried by the world.
Third, we're going to share the pendulum principle and why experiencing sorrow is actually a prerequisite for experiencing joy. And finally, Amy is going to share a beautiful personal story about how a quiet drive and a sunrise led to a life changing moment with her father.
But first, let's dive into the why of spirituality. I love the verse in John chapter 17, verse 3, which says that the. Goal is to know the only true.
God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, right? The goal is to know them. But to know them we have to kind of read about them in the scriptures.
And as we get to know them, our desires start to turn towards I want to be more like them, right? I want to be more kind. I want to be more loving. I want to serve others more. Because you see that those are some. Of the fruits of the spirit. You want to feel more peaceful, more joyful, more kind.
It all starts with knowing him. But honestly ladies, in the middle of a hard week, we find ourselves asking, what is in it for me right now?
Next, Amy is going to share with us with raw honesty why she personally sets spiritual goals, especially when it comes to her own emotional health.
Amy Johnson
00:02:51.310 - 00:04:14.040
First thing I thought of when you said, what's the goal of spirituality? I always think, what's in it for me? Because honestly, I believe I have a really big heart. I believe I'm a Pretty darn good person.
Having said that, I also believe mortality makes us selfish. And so I know that I'm not going to do something unless I really want to do it. So I ask that question, what's in it for me?
So for me, the goal of spirituality. I don't want to be buried emotionally by this world. I mean, I know that sounds silly, but again, I work in the mental health industry.
January is a hard time for me anyway. I'm very familiar with what depression feels like.
I know this world will bury me emotionally if I don't have help from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. But if I have help, then I can move the mountain that's attempting to destroy me. So for me, that's my why. Why do I set spiritual goals?
Because I want to be able to move those mountains of depression from me. That's. I know it sounds selfish, but for me, that's my why.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:04:14.920 - 00:05:18.610
So it's about survival and then eventually, joy. But to get to the joy, we have to understand the pendulum principle.
A sweet grandma once taught me that our capacity for sorrow and our capacity for joy are two sides of the same coin.
I remember a cute grandma when I was a teenager sharing with me this little bit of wisdom. She said, those emotions are like a pendulum.
And if you want to experience more joy and love, then you have to have that pendulum swing back the other way. And you have to have experienced that. That degree of sorrow.
And so she said, I know sometimes life is going to be super hard and you're going to experience such a strong degree of sorry. You're like, this sucks so much. I hate it.
But she just said, keep in mind that once you've experienced that degree of sorrow, your capacity to increase in joy is also true on the other side. You know, I was like, that is so good.
Amy Johnson
00:05:20.160 - 00:05:21.200
It's so true.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:05:22.160 - 00:06:21.780
So we have to sit in sorrow to understand the joy, but we don't have to sit there alone. The goal of spirituality is that we can feel God with us.
But in a really noisy world, that often requires an ingredient that sometimes is very hard to find, stillness.
I love the story found in First Kings 19, where Elijah goes up to commune with the Lord. And then a wind comes, and God's not in the wind. A fire comes. He's not on the fire, and later he hears a still, small voice.
It's those moments of stillness that help us connect with God to increase our spirituality, to improve it. But we live in a very noisy world. So it's almost like we have to make those Moments of quiet. Yes, we do. Because if not, there's always noise. I mean, think about it. You can always have music on, podcast playing
Amy Johnson
00:06:21.780 - 00:06:24.460
I have kids that call me every time they get in the car.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:06:24.860 - 00:06:59.290
Yeah, there you go.
So it's almost like you have to say, you know what, God, on this drive right here, you know, maybe you're going to work or coming from work, take. Coming home from taking kids to school or something.
You can say, God, I'm going to set aside this drive as my quiet drive, and I'm just going to commune with you, you know, see what happens, see what comes.
When we make that space, God can give us directions that we might otherwise miss. Amy is now going to share a powerful experience she recently had where a quiet drive changed everything.
Amy Johnson
00:07:00.090 - 00:09:08.740
I had spent two weeks here at Christmas with my family, my mom and dad, and. And I knew that my dad wasn't doing well. I knew that he had fallen and his walking was already not great.
But I knew it was the right thing to go back to Idaho. So I went back to Idaho. I worked for a week. And then Sunday night, my dad had. Had lost all ability to move and walk. And I.
And so Sunday night, I was talking to my mom, and my brothers said they were doing. They were gathering. And I was like, why are we gathering? Like, what is. Did you all forget to communicate with the girl who's six hours away?
Like, why are we gathering? But I prayed and I felt just this calm, like, you will know when it's time to go.
And then the next morning, I was driving to work, and I decided to be quiet. And the sky was just glorious.
And I was stopped at a stoplight miraculously long enough to take a picture with no cars of this sun rise and send it to my mother. Good morning, Mom. Because we send sky pictures to each other all the time. And she said, good morning. Name that is so beautiful.
I'm having a hard time getting dad to wake up this morning. And I proceeded to drive in the silence. And immediately the spirit said, turn around, go and go home. And I did.
And then I was able to spend the next three days in the home with my parents, with my eight, eight kids. All of us were there while my dad passed.
And I believe that those quiet moments really allow us to know where we need to be, when we need to be, so that we can have the experiences that God would love for us to have, the opportunities he would love for us to have so that we can feel joy and feel happy and progress and all the things he wants for us. So find the quiet. It's really the silence is a blessing.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:09:09.620 - 00:10:05.470
The goal of spirituality isn't to just. Get to heaven someday, it is to
Have heaven guide you today. It's about finding the silence so that you can hear the directions that matter most.
If you are feeling buried by the world and are ready to reorient yourself back to the light and set some spiritual goals, go download our free A Guide to Goal Setting for Christian Women.
It includes your own sacred brainstorm to find your first spiritual goal and a Don't Quit emergency kit for those days that feel so hard and heavy that you just want to give up. We will drop the links in the show notes below.
So ladies, as we wrap up today's episode, I invite you to go find five minutes of stillness today where you can listen to what God has to share with you and then may you arise. Do it God's way. God strong.
