Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Feeling and Not Feeling the Spirit at Church

I feel good most Sundays at church, but that's largely because I have tried hard to develop a true love for other people. I "feel the spirit" regularly, but I'm not sure exactly what that means, really. Perhaps I just feel the "warm fuzzies" more naturally than some.

As far as where someone can feel the spirit, I believe that different people feel God's love for them (solely or more intensively) in different situations and different places. For Joseph as a youth, it was a grove of trees; for Enos, it was while hunting, surrounded by God's creation; for some people, it is at church among their believing peers. 

I go to church to be and worship with others I have CHOSEN to love, no matter our differences - so I tend to feel good while I'm there regardless of what's being said in talks and lessons. When I am edified by a talk or lesson, which happens quite regularly given my attitude toward them, great! When I'm not (and even when I cringe or disagree), great! I'm still with people I've chosen to love in a setting I've chosen for myself.

It's all good, even when it's not all good - and that is important to me.

Oh, and the sacrament hasn't been accompanied with an outpouring of the spirit for me in a long, long time - if ever. It's something important I do as a token of my remembrance of him and commitment to live a Christ-centered life - not as a vehicle to feel the spirit. It just doesn't work that way for ME.

1 comment:

annegb said...

Totally agree. Phillip Yancey, not a member, wrote a wonderful book called "Reaching for the Invisible God" discussing many famous religious who went through (sometimes) years of spiritual drought. I think it's a matter of putting one foot in front of the other and having that uplift once in awhile. Good post.