Worthiness ?

[Anonymous]

Heber13 wrote:

I wonder if the situations were different, if you would have had a faith building experience. Interesting questions. Probably. Probably different things would have factored into your reaction, right?

I believe so – of course, if I ultimately had a faith building experience then it would not have been a faith transformation. It would have reaffirmed my previous beliefs and given me even more reason to believe. People lose loved ones every day without it being a faith transformation. I do believe that it is possible to have a faith crisis and come out of it with a faith that is relatively TBM.

Heber13 wrote:

Perhaps that is why that one big thing triggered your crisis. Perhaps we create our crises. We handle many situations just fine and life goes along. Until we bump up against the thing that is our personal test … And we have to work through it.

I would say that I created my crisis by having unrealistic expectations. The church was part of that but not all of it. I had a good childhood where I was loved and protected. This helped me to believe good things, to feel like I have options and choices in life. I had plenty of motivation to imagine that I could craft a semi-charmed life. I should point out that we want our young people to grow up this way. Let them feel safe, loved, and protected. Let them feel like they have a great future ahead of them with opportunities, choices, and options. Let them make glorious and wonderful plans for their lives. Some of those plans will work out. Some of them won’t. Life may take them down a few notches or take the “wind out of their sales” just as it has done for the generations that came before us. It is the circle of life.

Heber13 wrote:

And God let’s those things teach us.

They become personal. Not necessarily crafted by God for us…just enough things will be thrown at us in life that eventually we get hit by the things we can’t easily dismiss.

Yeah. We gain experience. Our optimism may be tempered. We pass down our wisdom to the next generation of young people that may listen, implement, modify, or discard our experiences in favor of doing their own thing. Each generation of youth is born to handle the challenges of their own time. They will have challenges thrust upon them and they will need to respond. IMO religion can serve as both a forum for older generations to pass down wisdom to the younger AND a strategy for young people to respond to the challenges of the day. Religions adapt as the times and associated challenges evolve.

Heber13 wrote:

It reveals something about us that is already inside us prior to the test. Not the situation itself. Just the combination of life events and our inner state of being. Eventually we will all stumble across our own Abrahamic-like test of faith and sacrifice.

I am not fully sure about this part. Maybe because I have too much baggage associated with the term test and Abrahamic test. I suppose I try to frame challenges in a positive manner – as opportunities for adaptation and growth. There may not be a “right answer” but life does require a response. hopefully we can respond in healthy ways that are conducive to life, love, support, and finding moments of joy in the journey.

Minyan Man wrote:

Or breaks us.

Yes, it can. Sometimes we have experiences that (though devastatingly hard) we can grow from. Sometimes we have experiences that serve no redemptive purpose and we just need to survive them.

Minyan Man wrote:

When my major challenges come along, my reaction is usually ANGER, RAGE & the desire for revenge. When I migrate to the darkside, nothing

spiritual can penetrate. That was my big takeaway. As time passed, I began to talk to people again. Maybe it was a desire to vent or the

desire to see how other people handled their challenges in life. Either way, I slowly came out of it.

Which brings us back to the original question of why some people have spiritual experiences in these harshest moments and others do not. I think that the answer comes down to because circumstances and people are different. It is both nature and nurture with a healthy dose of biology and brain chemistry thrown in. Other people’s experiences can be helpful – but at the end of the day only some of what they experience is applicable to me and my life. We each have to tread our own path the best that we can. I am glad that you have found your way out of the darkside after a time. That is a victory.

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