In search of spirituality

I am also interested in seeing peoples’ responses.

To my first question, how often do I have them — infrequently — once every few months and not daily.

To my second question, the source? Service to others and self-actualization.

Service to Others

I had one the other day. I was asked to speak to the entire staff at the university where I work about my involvement in the community. I have involved about 15 students in non-profit work. It has given them a lot of opportunity to work alongside me on various business-related projects — all of which are volunteer and meant to serve a struggling business district in town. The second purpose was to help students gain experience, letters of reference, and self-awareness as they pursue chosen careers.

In about 10 minutes, I profiled 4 projects I’ve been working on to benefit the local business community in an area of town where businesses have been leaving in droves. I ended with a quote from Ghandi who said “One of the advantages of a life of service is there is no competition”. One of my students also spoke for 3 minutes about her work on one of the committees.

At the end, one of my colleagues came up to me and said that whole thing was inspiring. that he needed get back into serving mankind. A number of other people came up to me and made positive comments.

There was no spirituality at this point. It happened when I came home. Over the weekend, while sick, I lay in bed reflecting on everythign I have done over the last year for free, and how it’s been a big sacrifice of my time, for my family, and my emotional reslience. It dawned on my that I’d only shared about 40% of everything I’d done. At this point, I filled up with what I consider to be the spirit.

So, reflection on personal sacrifice and service to others has been a source of spirituality lately.

Self-Actualization

The other time happened when I made a presentation to a large group of business owners about some programs we had started to help them — for free, or at low cost. When I sat down, I felt a kind of bliss. I realized it came from self-actualization. For years I had been nervous speaking in front of business people (non-student populations). But this time, it flowed from me without any problem or nervousness. I realized the community experience left me no longer nervous when speaking off the cuff to business audiences. I later spoke alongside tow district commissioners and also came away feeling positive about the experience and spiritual So, reaching that threshold gave me that same swept-inside feeling I used to get when I would teach at church.

Service, and becoming the person I would like to become have been sources of spirituality lately.

Quite regularly, but I don’t try to distinguish “spiritual” from “emotional” in cases that aren’t obviously influenced or manipulated externally – and I draw an important distinction between influence and manipulation. Mine come mostly completely out of the blue or when I am thinking about something for an extended period of time. I almost never have a “burning in the bosom” experience.

Overall, I’m more of a thinker than a feeler – but I test middle-of-the-road balanced on nearly every test I take. (That’s not a big surprise for anyone, I’m sure.)

All the time, certainly several a week. Sometimes every day if I’m not depressed.

The right movies or characters reaching out and helping others, certain music, stories, articles about others going beyond to help others out, being out in the forest or the ocean and thinking com-tinplating about life while interacting either alone or a small group.

Sharing important experiences that help others, helping others in general, sometimes in church talks or hymns.

Serving with others(small group contacting).

Protecting others, interacting with nature and the universe at times.

Saving life, either creatures or people-

Sometimes just random thoughts or actions that have meaning later.

Rarely reading a book, rarely I’m big or crowded environments or with lots of people.

Generally in close intimate settings either alone or with a small group doing “good” work and service.

Never in administration or working with people that are numbers divorced from the people themselves.

When my oldest daughter was dying, I overwhelmingly felt my grandfather’s presence at one point. My mom called me in tears to tell me that she had felt her father’s presence and felt that he was waiting for my daughter. I had not told her of my experience .. Both we both felt him at the same time. She was in Spokane. I was in Dallas.

I had an overwhelming feeling of WHEN she was going to die. The staff told me her condition was unchanged. I felt OVERWHELMINGLY that I needed to make phone calls. I told friends and family to make to two hour drive if they wanted to tell her goodbye. By the time people started arriving, her condition had changed, she was unstable and died within the hour. Without the premonition, I would have been alone with her, and her sister and dad would not have had a chance to share the death experience.

I have been told to turn my car around and go pick someone up. They turned out to be truly in need.

There were two of us setting up for a party at church late one night. Husbands had gone home with the kids. We both suddenly felt overwhelmingly that we needed to leave the building NOW. It was like the spirit was yelling at us to leave. We left and joked (nervously) about how GOD wanted us to go home .. We noticed a light on in the bishops office as we drove out of the parking lot. We found out the next day that the bishop had not left the light on .. But that someone had broken into the bishops office and then robbed the rest of the building. They took my silver salt and pepper shakers that I had left for the party. Because the light was on, we assume they were already in the building while we were there. I feel that I was protected from harm that night.

I have been prompted to go visit someone .. And found that they were in crisis.

I have had two dreams in my life that protected me from making very bad choices.

These things, in my opinion, have come from God.

On a slight twist away from the topic:

My sister was ex-communicated many years ago. She still feels God’s presence in her life. She feels the holy spirit. Knowing this, it has been interesting to hear people talk about an excommunicated person being cut off from God. I always ask them about the 99 and 1 sheep. To me, it seems that God would try even harder to reach the heart of someone who is in the midst of a spiritual struggle. I see excommunication as being a way to call people to repentance. A way to allow them to start over. A way to allow them to forgive themselves. I see it as a way to change their relationship with the church .. But it doesn’t separate them from God.

IMHO, the LDS church tradition used to be: To develop a personal relationship with God, and then get together on Sundays and teach each other and compare notes. We have moved away from that model into a more “lectured” model. A more formalized tradition of set roles and tighter doctrine. It might look more uniform from a distance .. As we all tend to dress well .. But it is stifling to the individual.

I really appreciate this thread and what you all have shared. I love how God works with us where we are at, with such individuality, and ways we can understand. Here are just a few of mine:

When my husband had his first crisis of faith, I was in a Fast and Testimony meeting crying and begging God to tell me why my husband never got his witness of the BofM. I heard a voice in my head say 3 times, “Why don’t you go visit that 7th Day Adventist church around the corner.” We did for two years and gleamed alot from that pastor and church. Then the Spirit brought us back to the lds church again for some time. When we moved to Florida from Iowa 5 years ago, the spirit led us to a Nazerene church and we gleamed alot there. A year and a half ago the Spirit led us to the United Church of Christ in Port Orange FLorida. If he ever told us to come back to the lds church, we would, but we have learned that God takes you where you can grow the best at different stages in your life.

I find that God works in so many different ways to reach us. Like with my husband, the spirit gave him an answer to prayer through playing a metal puzzle that was shaped like a heart. He got the answer to his question about how to deal with his co-workers who were difficult. That you reach them through their hearts/feelings about themselves, not logic. Through our gay son, the Spirit worked through chess games, and utube video’s of peoples out of body experiences. When my husband was about to harshly reprimand our gay son as a teen, the Holy Spirit stopped him in his tracks and loudly, put the thought, “It’s Necessary” in his mind and all the anger left him. He calmly told my son that the Spirit had just stopped him from reprimanding him and told him that what ever he is going through is necessary for his growth and to not be upset at him for that.

I remember telling a TBM about a powerful spiritual experience I had that went against the church teachings at the time. He looked at me and said, “God would NEVER tell you that.” I knew it was from God though because I had soo much peace and calmness in my heart afterwards. It made me not give up my church calling as GD teacher at the time. I told the guy, I bet Abraham’s wife and church members would have told Abraham the same thing you just told me if he had come out to tell them God told me to kill my only son Isacc. Only we can know if it was God’s word to us.

Those are good points. Even Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith received revelations that the religions of their day told them was blasphemous.