12-23-11 “He did deliver me from bondage” p. 159, Day 3

12-23-11  “He did deliver me from bondage”  p. 159, Day 3

I once did a report in school on sleep and dreams.  I don’t know why but I have always been fascinated with the idea of sleep.  It is an amazing miracle to me.  Physical sleep can rejuvenate and refresh our bodies, while spiritual sleep can kill us and keep our spirits from progressing.  One of the most fascinating parts of sleep to me is the passage of time, our awareness, and how our mind goes into a resting state.  One of Newton’s laws of motion is that an object at rest tends to stay at rest; and an object in motion tends to stay in motion: inertia.  He also says that there is a law of entropy, where life is constantly breaking down until it is at rest: the law of increasing disorder.  I suppose spiritual sleep is the state of spiritual rest like the Garden of Eden, where we can be at rest, but we cannot grow. 

 

It amazes me that I spent SO many hours being submerged in the environment of the Gospel, just going through the motions, before anything permeated my heart.  I feel my spiritual awakening only began 4 years ago when I desired to change, and I made commitments to God that I was willing to pay what ever price necessary to become what / who He wants me to be, and to be able to live His will.  It takes me back to that quote where Elder Eyring said in a talk called “Hearts Knit as One” that the gospel brings about the same changes in all of us.  I think spiritually we are all born into a state of sleep.  A child’s innocence is an example of this, as they are spiritually in the Garden of Eden.  In ignorance or innocence, we simply do not know what we do not know and God is merciful to forgive what we are not yet accountable for.  I suppose an external force of ‘being awakened’ is the only logical conclusion to find as to why this change comes about.  In being awakened physically surely anyone in the physical world can do it, sometimes pleasantly, sometimes unpleasantly.  To awaken our spirits, it must be done by a spiritual being on the other side of the veil, and most likely the Father of our Spirits at that.  I believe God to be the only one who can awaken us out of a deep spiritual sleep. 

 

In my own situation, I think I began to awake about the times of Presidential Elections 2008 because of pain and desire.  I wanted so badly to know my Savoir and to learn my mission.  That was the seed.  How it got planted is God’s mystery.  At first I had to come to a knowledge of the awful state of the world.  I studied, almost in an addiction state, the problems we face as a nation.  I came to know the players involved and the context of the big picture we are all a part of.  Since then I have become awakened to my mission and what I can do to be a part of the solution.  It is still a growth pattern of challenge, but there is no where else I’d rather be.  Stagnated growth is probably my biggest fear, and progress and ‘becoming’ my biggest fulfillment.