When people hear that you are a Christian, they immediately want to know why.
I think people are fully expecting to hear some amazing “I saw God while I was inches away from death and He told me not to be afraid” story. Maybe, that’s because the people who share their spiritual experiences always have a story that’s more amazing than the last one that you’ve heard.But I don’t have a story like that. And sometimes I think hearing other Christians’ stories make you feel a tad guilty about your own. It’s as though we are trying to use our spiritual experience stories to one up each other. Well, if you are so close to God then why hasn’t He spoken to YOU?
I will admit that I have felt that sting in my heart listening to other people’s riveting spiritual experiences, thinking I wish that I was close enough to God that He would speak to me. Sometimes, even people that do have spiritual experiences start to doubt their own story when they hear other people’s stories, as though their experience wasn’t as intense or emotional as everyone else’s.
This all came to head for me a few weeks ago when our church lent study group was discussing our spiritual experience stories.
We had read a chapter in Brian McLaren’s book, “Naked Spirituality,” where he discussed his own spiritual experience. Of course, as writers often do, he relayed one of the most beautiful, serene spiritual experience stories I’ve ever heard.
He was at a church bible camp in his teenage years struggling with his spirituality when he prayed to God that He would help him see the most beautiful sights, hear the most beautiful sounds and feel the most beautiful feelings. Later on that night, he met up with a bunch of his friends and laid out in an open field, when all of a sudden he felt God’s love. This warming, all-compassing feeling that gave him a hyperawareness of the beauty that surrounded him. Soon his friends starting feeling the same thing and they all shared this deep, intimate connection with each other. It was as if God answered his prayer exactly.
My first reaction was of course, wow, that’s an amazing story about the power of God’s love and the workings of the Holy Spirit. And, sadly enough, my next was well, that makes me sad, I’ve never experienced anything like that. It made me feel a little spiritually empty. I guess I’m not as close to God as I thought.When we were discussing this story in our study group, our pastor asked us to share our own stories. And you know what, no one really wanted to share their stories. No one had a story like Brian McLaren’s. And hearing his story made other people doubt their own.
After a few minutes of silence, I spoke up and said, “You know I can’t say that I’ve ever had an experience like that.” And the more I started to talk, the more comfortable I got with it. To the point where I found myself saying, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a Christian and not having one of those experiences.”
Then, this light bulb just went off in my head, who said you have to have a spiritual experience to be spiritual. God speaks to you in the way that you need it in that particular time and place.
It sounds like in Brian’s story God reached out to him because He could tell that his faith had been shaken and he needed a sign to see that God was truly there.
I’ve never been at a point like that in my life. I never needed God to show me something amazing to prove that he existed. I just always knew.
So if you don’t have one of these amazing spiritual experiences it’s not because your faith isn’t deep enough. Maybe it because God knows it is not what your faith needs.
If you think about the other ways God has guided your life, you’ll see that God is really constantly speaking to you—it’s just not always in such a dramatic way. In a lot of ways, I can say that my spiritual experience was not a singular time when God spoke to me directly; it was the way that he guided me toward certain people.
My spiritual experience was meeting my husband, who reinvigorated my faith in ways I never knew possible. There was no telltale dramatic “I am GOD” moment. I didn’t need that. All I needed was to be surrounded by Mr. A, learning and absorbing a little more each day.
To me, I think that shows more faith than some magical transformative moment. I believe not because I’ve experienced some unexplainable supernatural experience but simply because I know that God is out there. He didn’t need to become a burning bush to prove it to me.
