My Personal, Transforming Spiritual Awakening And What It Means

When someone tells you they have had a "spiritual awakening" what is your response?

• "They are a little 'out there'?"
• "That's nice, but how does it improve your daily life?"
• "No one really has that.  That aren't dealing with their problems correctly?"

Well, this author had one and is glad to say it.

The art of explaining it to other people displays bewildered looks.

A person could ask what a spiritual awakening is and how it helps them in their life.  Defining a "spiritual awakening" would be difficult.  In a nutshell it is more of a process.

This post attempts to address some of these things (and more).  

How Do You When You Have Had A Spiritual Awakening?
What I thought before:  It seems there is a higher power, but is it active in my life?
What I think now:        Looking back one can start to see how God is working.

What I thought before:  How can there by a God in a world that is so full of evil?

What I think now:        Evil has reasons to exist and it can help a person develop.

What I thought before: The characters in the Bible are what we could never achieve.

What I think now:       They are sinful like other people  and are models to follow.

What I thought before: What is the point in day to day life, as it is repetitive?

What I think now:       There is a bigger plan that you only know part of.

What I thought before:  Things seem to go wrong a lot.

What I think now:        God works through people.  Do what you know is right and be alert.

Before it would not have dawned me, but now I have been made aware of a fact:  People do not stop God's plan.  If God wants something to happen then it happens, regardless of the input of other people.  Some bad decisions might make it seem like God is not working, but on his time it unfolds according to his plan.

As philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard said, "Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward"

 Yes, But How Does This Improve Your Life?
Photo from everystockphoto.com via flickr.com

So what does this transformation in thinking mean in regard to daily life?  Here are some observations.

1.  Trials occur in life and things happen you do not expect, but these things are for your good in the end. 
2.  When judging others you are incriminating yourself.  None of us is perfect.
3.  Thinking about the next world helps puts today's tasks in perspective.  Trials are not misfortune for you, but necessary discipline for your benefit.
4.  Your happiness is not dependent on what other people think.
5.  There is much more going on around you than you can comprehend.   Focus on what there is you think you should learn.
6.  Realize that all you are and have is from above and is working according to a plan you did not develop.

How does this knowledge help your life?  For one thing it helps bring the small realization that life in this world is more than survival and keeping up with the Joneses.  Do you feel any better?
Have you had a spiritual awakening today?
You might also be interested in:
What Is A Spiritual Awakening?
What I Would Change
Author:  Albert Wagner