The website for my car has the top banner words “navigate, connect, and discover.” I would add a fourth word, but that’s at the end of my little ditty.

Truer words could not describe not only that thing in my garage but that earthly thing concerning spiritual things. Three words evoke the best of any religion. All religions offer repetition and rote methods to express honoring and respecting a force greater than ourselves.

Our DNA, the core of our being, propels us toward something greater. Something or someone more meaningful than ourselves, which then provides meaning to our life’s journeys. I don’t understand how someone can be an atheist, but I suppose that “greater” is the continuing search for knowledge. Wow! Now we religious folks have something in common with non-believers. You would have imagined?

It’s those three words at the top. Rote and repetition express our religious faith. However, it’s not life’s homework of spirituality. The rote of the Catholic Mass offers publicly to God “handing in” our personal assignments. Those assignments are totally performed, honed, and acted upon outside of Mass.

The atheist personally seeks wisdom and enlightenment, prompting a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Christians prayerfully seek the same results, getting out of bed and presenting ourselves to the “greater honor and glory of God.”

For everyone, this is the melding of navigating, connecting, and discovering. Uniting the three is life’s scary yet exhilarating journey toward meaning and purpose.

My fourth word? It’s “uncovered.” All of us can do those three words relying on the mystery and beauty of my fourth. We uncover what was all DNA planted at birth to constantly navigate through all of life’s life while staying strongly connected to significant others and then discovering, again and again, the gift we call life.