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I Had an Amazing Spiritual Experience at Church Today


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While skiing at Snowbasin today I was struck with the realization of just how blessed I am to live in Utah and be enjoying the amazing beauty of this world class ski resort and some of the best snow on earth.  I don't attend church anymore and so find what little spirituality I do have when in nature. As I was absorbing the beauty all around me I was overcome with a warm burning in my bosom and a tear even came to my eye. I felt truly blessed. 

It was such a beautiful amazing Blue Bird day...I am so grateful to have been able to attend the church of my choice at snowbasin which just happens to be skiing...experience the friendship of amazing people...and turn my legs into jello.

It was one of the best days of my life...thought I'd share...

 

 

ive edited this post from the original to correct what seemed more snarky than I intended

i respect those who choose differently than I do...and choose to attend church

Edited by Johnnie Cake
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5 minutes ago, Johnnie Cake said:

While skiing at Snowbasin today I was struck with the realization of just how blessed I am to be enjoying the absolute beauty of this world class ski resort and some of the best snow on earth instead of sitting in some pew at some church being bored with the same old lessons on a 4 year rotation...as this thought poured over me I was overcome with a warm burning in my bosom and a tear even came to my eye. I felt truly blessed. 

It was such a beautiful amazing Blue Bird day...I am so grateful to have been able to attend the church of my choice...experience the friendship of amazing people...and turn my legs into jello.

It was one of the best days of my life...thought I'd share...

Nothing like nature and being totally aware of a peace that is awe.  I hear you. 

Missing my hikes after a rainfall in summer.

Edited by Jeanne
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11 minutes ago, Johnnie Cake said:

While skiing at Snowbasin today I was struck with the realization of just how blessed I am to be enjoying the absolute beauty of this world class ski resort and some of the best snow on earth instead of sitting in some pew at some church being bored with the same old lessons on a 4 year rotation...as this thought poured over me I was overcome with a warm burning in my bosom and a tear even came to my eye. I felt truly blessed. 

It was such a beautiful amazing Blue Bird day...I am so grateful to have been able to attend the church of my choice...experience the friendship of amazing people...and turn my legs into jello.

It was one of the best days of my life...thought I'd share...

I have had great skiing days like that too that gave me the same feelings on other days of the week. Then I go to Church and have the same feelings again. 

Edited by JAHS
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6 minutes ago, JAHS said:

I have had great skiing days like that too that gave me the same feelings on other days of the week. Then I go to Church and have the same feelings again. 

Well..you may be one up on me...for past few years, my church on Sunday has been Walmart..Hard to get the spirit there!:)

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30 minutes ago, Jeanne said:

Well..you may be one up on me...for past few years, my church on Sunday has been Walmart..Hard to get the spirit there!:)

Yes but if you carry it with you when you go in to Walmart you can feel it there or anywhere. We take responsibility for having the spirit with us and don't count on people or places to provide it for us.

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56 minutes ago, Johnnie Cake said:

While skiing at Snowbasin today I was struck with the realization of just how blessed I am to be enjoying the absolute beauty of this world class ski resort and some of the best snow on earth instead of sitting in some pew at some church being bored with the same old lessons on a 4 year rotation...as this thought poured over me I was overcome with a warm burning in my bosom and a tear even came to my eye. I felt truly blessed. 

It was such a beautiful amazing Blue Bird day...I am so grateful to have been able to attend the church of my choice...experience the friendship of amazing people...and turn my legs into jello.

It was one of the best days of my life...thought I'd share...

Cool, so you talk to Heavenly Father while you ski?

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38 minutes ago, rodheadlee said:

Cool, so you talk to Heavenly Father while you ski?

No...just took in the beauty of the day...I'm agnostic on the question of a god, but seriously doubt one exists...just don't see any proof of a god...other than the kind of god who got it going and then walked away...but I don't even believe that kind of god actually exists either

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17 minutes ago, Johnnie Cake said:

No...just took in the beauty of the day...I'm agnostic on the question of a god, but seriously doubt one exists...just don't see any proof of a god...other than the kind of god who got it going and then walked away...but I don't even believe that kind of god actually exists either

And yet you just experienced some of the best proof of his existence.
Go figure.

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I don't ski, but I know people who go to church and ski, generally on different days. None of them have made themselves think they can only do one or the other. And some of them know how to feel the Spirit and receive personal revelation when at church, even when a speaker is boring and even when some lessons get repeated. They go to church to fellowship with the saints, not with the eye of going there passively and waiting for someone else to pour some new bit of knowledge into their head; they know that the best way to gain new knowledge is on their own with the assistance of the Spirit, but part of the reason they also attend church is to help offer their own knowledge to others, sometimes doing so as formal teachers.

Edited by CMZ
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2 hours ago, Johnnie Cake said:

While skiing at Snowbasin today I was struck with the realization of just how blessed I am to be enjoying the absolute beauty of this world class ski resort and some of the best snow on earth instead of sitting in some pew at some church being bored with the same old lessons on a 4 year rotation...as this thought poured over me I was overcome with a warm burning in my bosom and a tear even came to my eye. I felt truly blessed. 

It was such a beautiful amazing Blue Bird day...I am so grateful to have been able to attend the church of my choice...experience the friendship of amazing people...and turn my legs into jello.

It was one of the best days of my life...thought I'd share...

I'm not a skier, but I rode my fat tire bike in the snow today up in the canyon.  I feel I am blessed to live so close to the outdoors.  Utah is a good place.

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17 minutes ago, CMZ said:

I don't ski, but I know people who go to church and ski, generally on different days. None of them have made themselves think they can only do one or the other. And some of them know how to feel the Spirit and receive personal revelation when at church, even when a speaker is boring and even when some lessons get repeated. They go to church to fellowship with the saints, not with the eye of going their passively and waiting for someone else to pour some new bit of knowledge into their head; they know that the best way to gain new knowledge is on their own with the assistance of the Spirit, but part of the reason they also attend church is to help offer their own knowledge to others, sometimes doing so as formal teachers.

I agree...one could do both...I just prefer skiing instead of church

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4 minutes ago, sunstoned said:

I'm not a skier, but I rode my fat tire bike in the snow today up in the canyon.  I feel I am blessed to live so close to the outdoors.  Utah is a good place.

Love mountain biking, have friends who rave about fat tire biking...maybe someday...we live in a beautiful place with so many outdoor activities 

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24 minutes ago, carbon dioxide said:

Skiing may be fun but its very dangerous.  Just ask Sonny Bono.  Better just to stay indoors next to a nice heater or fire and a dog and watch a show. 

Good point...2 people have been killed this year at snowbasin alone...its a fun exhilarating sport...but helmet should be worn...however, both of these fatalities were wearing helmets 

Edited by Johnnie Cake
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5 hours ago, Johnnie Cake said:

While skiing at Snowbasin today I was struck with the realization of just how blessed I am to live in Utah and be enjoying the amazing beauty of this world class ski resort and some of the best snow on earth.  I don't attend church anymore and so find what little spirituality I do have when in nature. As I was absorbing the beauty all around me I was overcome with a warm burning in my bosom and a tear even came to my eye. I felt truly blessed. 

It was such a beautiful amazing Blue Bird day...I am so grateful to have been able to attend the church of my choice at snowbasin which just happens to be skiing...experience the friendship of amazing people...and turn my legs into jello.

It was one of the best days of my life...thought I'd share...

 

 

ive edited this post from the original to correct what seemed more snarky than I intended

i respect those who choose differently than I do...and choose to attend church

I'll be at the Atlantic Ocean in a couple of weeks, I find I enjoy such things better when do not neglect Church. 

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6 hours ago, Johnnie Cake said:

While skiing at Snowbasin today I was struck with the realization of just how blessed I am to live in Utah and be enjoying the amazing beauty of this world class ski resort and some of the best snow on earth.  I don't attend church anymore and so find what little spirituality I do have when in nature. As I was absorbing the beauty all around me I was overcome with a warm burning in my bosom and a tear even came to my eye. I felt truly blessed. 

It was such a beautiful amazing Blue Bird day...I am so grateful to have been able to attend the church of my choice at snowbasin which just happens to be skiing...experience the friendship of amazing people...and turn my legs into jello.

It was one of the best days of my life...thought I'd share...

 

 

ive edited this post from the original to correct what seemed more snarky than I intended

i respect those who choose differently than I do...and choose to attend church

It doesn't matter which "church" you attend, or whether you attend at all, so much as whether you have found the blue bird of happiness.  Your cosmic experience up there with the Greatest Snow on Earth reminds me of a poem by Sam Walter Foss, which I excerpt here:

There are hermit
souls that live withdrawn
In the peace of their self-content;
There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran;-
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

Let me live in a house
by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by-
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner’s seat,
Or hurl the cynic’s ban;-
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

-- more at https://www.alsintl.com/resources/poetry/the-house-by-the-side-of-the-road/b .

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Johnnie Cake/Craig Paxton/Your Other Sockpuppets/Whoever You Are:

Along with CMZ, I would have no problem with your going skiing, nor with your choosing to do so on Sunday, nor even with your foregoing church attendance.  You have your agency, after all: you may use it how you wish, and you're certainly not accountable to me for how you do so.  More power to you.  I'm glad you enjoyed your day. As CMZ points out, there are plenty of us who go to Church on Sunday ... and ski on one (or more) of the other days of the week.

My feelings about going to and being in church, however, even (and in some ways, especially) being there for three hours have changed drastically over the last 18 months I have spent largely in exile from my home ward due to my work schedule. (My enforced exile has blessed me with the insight that, with all due respect, the "take-a-sabbatical-from-church" crowd is nuts! :crazy:)  Yes, sometimes the three-hour block gets long.  Yes, some weeks, it is better than others.  But if I go to church as an empty vessel expecting to be filled, almost invariably, I am apt to be disappointed.  If I go to church as a (at least somewhat) filled vessel offering to replenish others' vessels in whatever modest ways I can, I find (perhaps paradoxically, in some ways) that I am more (ful)filled. See also Matthew 10:39.  

What I don't get, though, is your seemingly-irresistible urge (and make no mistake: it still comes through, your editing of the post notwithstanding) to sneer at Latter-day Saints and the things they hold sacred.  Yes, it is possible to feel the Spirit's influence in places other than church (almost anywhere, in fact).  According to the Christian paradigm, God created the world, after all.  You had a good day. Great!  Congratulations!  You were one with Nature. Great! Congratulations!

Now, if you'd left out the hint of sneering condescension (in the fellowship forum, no less) ... :huh: And it's said that Latter-day Saints have a problem with being holier-than-thou: maybe some (perhaps many) of us do, but as your post proves ... again, editing notwithstanding ... we're not the only ones who do.

Just sayin'! ;) 

P.S.: Why is it that I hear only the disaffected use the phrase "burning in the bosom," and then, only to sneer?  I can't remember the last time I heard a conversant, observant Latter-day Saint use it.  Most all Latter-day Saints don't bother trying to reduce a transcendent experience to words, because they know that's futile, anyway.  Maybe I hang out with a weird crowd, but the only phrase I've heard with any regularity with reference to that experience is simply, "I feel the Spirit."

Edited by Kenngo1969
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8 hours ago, Johnnie Cake said:

Good point...2 people have been killed this year at snowbasin alone...its a fun exhilarating sport...but helmet should be worn...however, both of these fatalities were wearing helmets 

I mean no disrespect nor lack of sympathy for those who have met that fate, nor for their loved ones, and perhaps (while I'm certainly not a fatalist), when one's number is up, one's number is up.  That said, it pays to know one's abilities and to not outski (nor to out-anything-else) them.

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5 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

It doesn't matter which "church" you attend, or whether you attend at all, so much as whether you have found the blue bird of happiness.  Your cosmic experience up there with the Greatest Snow on Earth reminds me of a poem by Sam Walter Foss, which I excerpt here:

There are hermit
souls that live withdrawn
In the peace of their self-content;
There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran;-
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

Let me live in a house
by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by-
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner’s seat,
Or hurl the cynic’s ban;-
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

-- more at https://www.alsintl.com/resources/poetry/the-house-by-the-side-of-the-road/b .

Robert F. Smith:

Love that! :good: 

Thanks,

-Ken

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7 hours ago, Atheist Mormon said:

where's DCP?

We could use his wisdom today against this grand heresy.....

And, as if on cue, more sneering!

Always nice to see you, Atheist. ;) 

(Perhaps we should have a separate "Sneering Condescension" folder? :huh:)

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14 hours ago, JAHS said:

Yes but if you carry it with you when you go in to Walmart you can feel it there or anywhere. We take responsibility for having the spirit with us and don't count on people or places to provide it for us.

This is sad...I meant to make you smile and still I get preached to.  There is a little boy who often seems hungry..he peeks into the bakery on Sundays and knows that I will offer him a cookie or some bread..his mother watches and looks on knowing that i will do just this.  Spirituality?  If this can happen to me on a Sunday..and if there is a peace in nature like Johnny Cake has found...why is a chapel for three hours a better deal? 

Sometimes I think you all pretend to be happy when in reality you are tired and not really fulfilled in all those church meetings.  The biggest thing I have found after leaving the church is those goosebumps on the inside..they are real..and they can happen anywhere.

Edited by Jeanne
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