Inspiring Stories of Dragonflies and Spiritual Awakening
Inspirations
Issue Number 2
December 2001
Welcome to Inspirations! Global Community For All sends out this e-zine filled with short, inspiring stories of love, healing, and empowerment every three months. We share this dragonfly story and story of spiritual awakening to encourage and inspire each other to be the best we can be each day of our lives. Thanks for joining us, and may these words inspire us to ever deepen our commitment to love, heal, and empower; to open to divine guidance; and to choose what's best for all.
Dragonfly Story – Marjorie Singer
My Spiritual Awakening – Fred Burks
Fred Burks – My Spiritual Awakening |
Growing up with a father who was a minister is not what it might seem. Seeing dad preach great virtues from the pulpit to a large congregation who looked up to him just didn't resonate with the way dad treated our family and the way he acted at home. For one thing, he preached on the importance of freedom, yet forced us to go not only to church, but also to Sunday school every week, when I had much better things to do with my time. I did admire some of my dad's moral beliefs, I just wished he'd practice what he preached with us. |
I never was one to believe something just because someone in authority said it was true. From as young as I can remember, I questioned the existence of God. I liked the historical figure of a loving Jesus and would even use him as a role model, asking myself, "What would Jesus do in this situation?" But the concept of God was too abstract. I had a very inquiring, scientific mind which wanted to see proof before believing in anything. I also wanted no help in this from my dad, from anyone else, or even God for that matter. With an ego at least as big as that of my dad, I always preferred to teach myself and to prove for myself anything important. If there was a God, I would find out on my own. |
When I was a high school senior, I became involved with a wonderful, loving group of born-again Christians. This group was strongly oriented towards personal growth and supporting each other in being loving, shining witnesses for Christ. Though I never did become a born-again myself, I became one of the main leaders of this group. They were very accepting of my questioning the existence of God, particularly as I lived my life by very loving Christian principles. When people were concerned about my being saved, I asked them when they prayed not to pray for me to become a born-again, but rather to pray that God would lead me down the path that was best for me. |
Not long after leaving this wonderful group of friends to go away to college, I found myself for the first time in a spiritual crisis. Without my supportive friends back home, and feeling pressured by pushy born-again Christians at college to become born again, I felt somehow lost. All my life I had proudly said to myself that if God did exist, I would find the proof myself. Yet feeling lost and truly in need of help, I decided to let my ego step aside. For the first time in my life, I prayed to God to show himself to me if he did exist. |
Within two months of that prayer, a friend showed me a book called Life After Life by Dr. Raymond Moody. This book described the experiences of many people who had been declared dead at the hospital and yet miraculously come back to life. The fact that they came from such different backgrounds, yet had very similar experiences while "dead" completely convinced me of the existence of the spirit world and the divine. After this experience, I began to pray more actively, knowing that my prayers were really being heard. |
Within a few months I had another powerful spiritual awakening. I was reading an inspiring book called Cosmic Consciousness by Richard Bucke when something in me shifted. It felt as if a door on the top of my head opened and a tremendous amount of inspiring information began pouring in. Tears of joy streamed from my eyes as I suddenly found myself remembering all these things I once knew from what felt like a time before I was born! Simply amazing!!! |
I know that both of these spiritual awakenings would not have happened if I hadn't put my ego and arrogance aside and directly asked for help from God. I know now that if I ask with a pure heart and ask above all else for what's best for all, my prayers are always answered. As a result of that initial prayer and the following two inspirational events, not only did I become convinced of the existence of the divine, my life also took on a very clear, intentional spiritual focus–a focus which has continued to bring blessing after rich blessing into my life to this day. |
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