In Reply to: My take on the meaning of life - & happy new year ! posted by Eva St John on December 30, 2003 at 01:30:12:
I completely agree with you about the prayers being answered regardless of someone's faith. Where I'm at now in my journey is to not have a definition for God, often I think of God simply as a Higher Power. And I've come to realize that another person's understanding of God can be very very different from my own. Many people do want to define God, and that's up to them, the way I choose to believe is up to me.
I like very much with what you said about how the heart awakens before the mind understands. I like to relate to having God in my life as a spiritual awakening. Since I left the Family I've been able to sort out some of the religious experiences from when I was a member, to me a lot of it was Berg's brand of pentacostalism, fundamental Christianity, spiritism, and of course his apocalyptic interpretations of Bible prophecy, etc.
To sum things up, I did not have a spiritual awakening in the Family. I thought I was spiritual, but emotional desperate praying with tongues and weeping is actually very shallow. The prophecies I presumed I was receiving were from my own subconcsious. That way I got the answers I wanted and the answers that suited the confines of what a Family member is supposed to think and do. In other words my so called spirituality was pretty shallow and twisted.
These days I like to go for walks and I meditate, sometimes, I say the Our Father, but I just as well say prayers that are from other religions. (For me the Our Father goes way beyond being just a prayer defined by Christianity.) I'm slowly growing spiritually, learning to live just one day at a time, even sometimes living in the moment. I'd like to have the kind spirituality where I could always just live in the moment. I don't expect to get there all at once, but I can grow into it. That's where I'm at on my journey as I start the New Year.
Thanks for the good post Eva, very thought provoking, I have more to say, but I need to go help my wife in the kitchen.