Monday, January 26, 2015

The Spirit

It's been a long time, but yesterday, at church, I felt for a moment what I used to think was "The Spirit." I was completely surprised, and I cried, as I always do when feeling "The Spirit." The scenario was a R. S. lesson on fasting. The conversation had turned to the good things the church welfare system does. (I didn't bring up that fast offerings stay in local wards and I believe aren't related to what happens at Welfare Square.) Anyway, the church welfare system, both on the local and international level is something I can definitely get behind and makes me very proud of my roots. The sisters were talking about experiences some of them had at Welfare Square in Salt Lake City. I almost chose not to comment because I was I am attending a German ward and would need someone to translate for me. However since the topic also turned to politics I decided to share the wonderful headlines coming from America papers about SLC in past few weeks. I said that the culture of fasting which leads to mindfulness of the less fortunate seemed to seep into UT politics and that SLC as of this year has no homeless people because the city gave them homes!  To say out loud that "my people" gave homes to the homeless made me cry. Ironically, the messages I hear so often from inside the church are anti "government handouts"and berate the idea of giving someone something just because he/she needs it (teach a man to fish, etc.). Somehow, probably because it made economic sense as well, the Christian mandate to feed the hungry and cloth the naked made it through the tough politic skin in UT. 

I recognized this experience where my emotions become very tender and my heart races as what I used to identify as "The Spirit." I do not think the spirit testified to me of the SLC political policy. That's not even supposed to be His role after all. Instead I think these feelings were a natural result of experiencing love, service, generosity, charity. That's what I feel. That's what I'm feeling right now as I type about this. This is a special moment for me because I think I might be able to foster those feelings again in a healthy way for what they are. I can learn to understand and trust them again. 

1 comment:

  1. Mary, yes. yes. Yes! I think your experiences is closely related to how I felt listening to the Danny and Mary Kofed of A Blog About Love and subsequently rediscovering my "spirituality." Our experiences regardless of how we have interpreted them are real and rich.

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