Ask Me Help Desk - People who suddenly become spiritual

I've always wondered why some people have that spirituality in them - like they shout the halleluyahs' and all.

Others consider themselves to be christians and don't feel so spiritual. I'm one of those people. Back in the day, I felt so spiritual, I really did do everything in my life to reach my goals of serving Him.

Today, after a bad marriage, and a rude awakening that my religion wasn't the real deal, when it comes to spirituality I feel so blah.

Meanwhile some good friends around me have "woken up" from leading the so called bad life - lives filled with drugs, sex, etc, and now today, they're super spiritual.

So I wonder, how is it possible that some people become spiritual (even during problems) and others are just blah.

More importantly, what causes these people who weren't spiritual to "wake up" and become spiritual? It's not like they were praying to God when they were doing drugs, as an example, or when they were getting arrested by the cops. So why do they suddenly feel the spirituality?

Wow good question. I'm having this issue now. I'm having bible study every Saturday and Sunday. But I can't really get into it. I don't have faith in it yet. I keep telling them that its hard for me to believe in it when I don't have faith in god. The bible is like a book to me but I can't really connect with it yet. I know what you mean though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crybaby9112001

wow good question. im having this issue now. im haveing bible study every saturday and sunday. but i can't really get into it. i dont have faith in it yet. i keep telling them that its hard for me to believe in it when i dont have faith in god. The bible is like a book to me but i can't really connect with it yet. I know what you mean though.

Thank you so much for understanding. Cause this is a question that has baffled me recently

I do understand. Ive had this issue for along time. I want to be able to be spiritual and I want to have faith and believe in a higher god and believe that there is more out there, but I just cant. Your not alone though. Im with you.;)

I think we're spiritual all the time, connected to God. God is always aware of us but sometimes we get lost. Whenever my spirituality wanes it's because I'm thinking about things too much.

Spirituality isn't found in a book or a church, or in our heads. It's in our hearts.

But why is it that some people who are atheists or criminals suddenly "wake up" and start praising God? It's as if someone turned the "on" button on them.

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Originally Posted by dincher

but why is it that some people who are atheists or criminals suddenly "wake up" and start praising God? It's as if someone turned the "on" button on them.

I think in religious circles its called having an epiphany.
A clarifying moment .

I can recall in my life a moment where the same thing was happening to me again and again and one day I saw the light ,so to speak and could not believe I had allowed the abuse in my life that I had for so long.It was like someone turned on a switch in my brain and I had clarity.

When people first find their spiritual selves I think they feel so overwhelmed they want to shout it from the rooftops.Like when you first fall in love,you want the whole world to know and share your joy!

People often *get religion* in jail and many think its just a ploy but the bottom line is getting Jesus won't get you out of jail and you might be able to fool others but you can't fool God.

I have been at a crossroad in my life where my faith was failing me because I allowed it to due to my anger and depression.My faith is what eventually pulled me out of depression and back to my spirituality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dincher

but why is it that some people who are atheists or criminals suddenly "wake up" and start praising God? It's as if someone turned the "on" button on them.

I think more than those who have everything going right for them, those who have gone down the wrong road and seen the worst there is in life.
These who do not have anything more to lose in terms of self respect, trust and love from those they have hurt intentionally or not; they are looking for something to hold on, to not give up, to find that there is some way they can come out of the mess they have created.

Some find that spirituality gives them the answer, that they can become better if they become more spiritual, if they give up on things worldly.
They feel that getting in touch with their souls and correcting their lives easier than trying to correct their lives on their own.

Some find tranquility in being spiritual, which is why they look for religion or God, and some go through different phases while recovering from their messed up lives.

For those who do change their lives through belief,spirituality as Artlady mentioned sees that it helped them and they wish that others could see what they could.
They wish for others to know the reason they changed and that it is possible to change even after having gone through so much.

The ones who do speak about spirituality even though they have had messed up pasts, they speak from their own experience that spirituality saved them from the road to destruction.

As you said it is like a switch turned on for them after being blind all this time. Once a person becomes spiritual, they look at everything from a new perspective.

Maybe it is because people who claim to "have religion" see themselves as being on top of the world. When they start to lose their way, the only direction they see is down.

Whereas, the only option for those at the bottom... is up.

It doesn't all apply to the responses in this thread but it was my original response to this question, which was originally asked in another thread... thought Id add it here to the "official thread" just because...

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Originally Posted by me

dincher, good question.. should probably have started your own thread for it but ah well. But anyway...

Maggie 3, bless her heart... while her response would have likely elicited many o' "Amen"' at the local church, I'm afraid it is probably useless when directed toward someone in dincher's situation. This is surely the biggest blunder in Christian evangelism... and yet, all too common. It's kind of like trying to give someone directions to a party from where YOU ARE rather than from where the person you're directing is.

Anyway (again) dincher, I think the answer here is kind of two-fold. On one hand, I think it has a lot to do with where you put your faith. Maybe when you were younger, you put a lot more of your faith in God. You trusted that everything would be okay if you did so. Then you learned that putting your faith in God doesn't automatically give you the life that you deemed "perfect". So, consciously or subconsciously, you put your faith back into the world. Somewhere along the way you found than your "religion wasn't the real deal". That's good to hear. In my opinion, no "religion" is ever the "real deal". I hold the time in my life where I finally made that distinction very close.

But what happened next? Are you still stuck in a religion because you once subscribed to it but no longer believe in it? Or have you moved on and grown from the experiences you had to find the Truth? Or have you even tried? Did you give up the search? What DO you believe in, if anything?

Oh, and let me just throw this out there... just because someone goes to church on Sunday and throws out the halleluyahs' and all don't mean they got the spirituality in them. Know what I mean?

So the OTHER side to this answer is that you are comparing yourself to these friends of yours... the ones that used to lead the "bad life: sex, drugs, rock n roll". There's another name for those kind of people. We are called "addicts". We have a very distinctive trait in our personality. When we do drugs, we do them all the way... when we do sex, we do it all the way...

Why would you think that, when we do spirituality, it would be any different?

I think those people new to the "light" are just now getting to that chapter of their lives.

Some have just now realized that saving their soul is a high priority.

If they are sincere, and not going to church just to meet chicks(or guys), then I guess we shouldn't question their reasons.

I have , in the last few years, gotten a lot more spiritual .

My reasons? GOD has been very good to me. He gave me two fine sons, a great loving wife, and brought me back from the hell of drug and alcohol addiction. Not to mention all the other blessings that are in my life.

I'm not a preacher, but I am , in my mind and heart, closer to HIM.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmjoseph

I think those people new to the "light" are just now getting to that chapter of their lives.

Some have just now realized that saving their soul is a high priority.

If they are sincere, and not going to church just to meet chicks(or guys), then I guess we shouldn't question their reasons.

I have , in the last few years, gotten a lot more spiritual .

My reasons? GOD has been very good to me. He gave me two fine sons, a great loving wife, and brought me back from the hell of drug and alcohol addiction. Not to mention all the other blessings that are in my life.

I'm not a preacher, but I am , in my mind and heart, closer to HIM.

This is good, but I guess it'd be interesting to know how one just "clicks". I mean, when people are getting arrested or going to jail, it's not like they're actually searching for God, you know what I mean?
So how do they realize that He's there and suddenly have that love for Him

Quote:

Originally Posted by dincher

but why is it that some people who are atheists or criminals suddenly "wake up" and start praising God? It's as if someone turned the "on" button on them.

Because they have hit rock bottom, and there is no where else to turn. When they stop fighting all the battles themselves, and just give it up, and be still, and sit quietly, then they can hear God, who was there all along. At least that is what I think.:)