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To Be Slain In The Spirit Or Not To Be. That Is The Question.

I laughed out loud when my sister told me her experience walking up for an altar call at a church she was visiting years ago, only to discover that everyone in the line ended up on the floor.

Yes..slain in the Spirit.

I’m not talking about what you looked like after the all-you-can-eat buffet you hit up last. I’m talking about what many believe to be a personal encounter with the Holy Spirit, often facilitated by the laying on of hands, and resulting with someone laid out on the floor mimicking a snow angel. Ok…I kid.

No disrespect to ANYONE’S beliefs here!

It’s just that when she demonstrated to me how she went along with it and fell down after the minister shoved her in the forehead…well…I just lost it. And she genuinely was just trying to not make a scene.

We both grew up in a much more conservative Christian expression, where getting slain in the Spirit looked more like people clapping too loudly after a rousing rendition of Amazing Grace. So I knew it must have been a strange experience for her.

Historically, I’ve never been “slain” in this way.  In my past, I’ve felt emotionally overwhelmed with the “sinfulness of my ways” while quietly considering how many re-baptisms it would take to really do the trick.  When I got a bit older I’d maybe feel…an ephiphanous enlightenment at the divine intelligence of unconditional love.  But all usually while calmly sitting down.

Not sure if I just never “had the holy spirit” as some might claim, or maybe I just didn’t know how to do it right. Looking back, it just was not in my religious DNA. You would never catch me doing a“holy c-walk” in the sanctuary…I mean…outside of church I’ve been extremely excited after an ignorant amount of tequila, but that’s probably the closest I’ve ever come to doing anything like this:

 

My sisters story still has me smiling as I recall it…

And I’m curious…What would you do if you were her? And you were, as she described it, stuck in line, expecting a simple prayer, and feeling very uncomfortable at the prospect of having to figure out how you were going to fall appropriately?

And if you can’t relate directly to this story…is there something you’re used to doing (religiously or otherwise), that you can imagine comes across as very strange to someone from another worldview?

 

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She’s So Bored And Just Getting Started

“I’m sooo Bored!!!!!!”

That’s how my friends email began. And this was after she had watched two shows, checked Facebook, read the news and all her blog subscriptions, and all while at work.

I figured this common cry to be connected to a deeper sense of alienation. I’m familiar with that discomfort, but I have always held, that in part, this sort of open acknowledgement was a key indicator of ones lack of creativity.  

If you say you’re bored, you’re probably just a boring person. Right?  

Well, not so fast.

Maybe boredom acts in much the same way our immune system does when warning us of a malfunction, that we did not create, but may also facilitate. For instance…I just finished wiping off a sneeze that escaped onto my computer screen.  Which you can now deduce is not only too much information, but also an indicator that I am sick.

Who is to blame for this?

Isn’t boredom just the metaphorical mucus of our soul’s condition?  Where what we are capable of meets the constraints of a reality that reveals just how much we are under-challenged in our jobs and life?  

(Check out this Challenge vs Skills graph.)

So…what’s the difference between boredom and apathy?

 

Not only did this email prompt me toward this thought, but I also watched a movie the night before that I may not have ordinarily watched if I weren’t so sick…and maybe a little bored. The Trotsky, a Jacob Tierney comedy, touches on this distinction between boredom and apathy.

Check it out…

 

In the movie, Leon Bronstein, who feels he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky, seems to frame boredom in a unique perspective, rich with potential, and echoing the words of Walter Benjamin.

“We are bored when we don’t know what we are waiting for…. Boredom is the threshold to great deeds.”

And shouldn’t we be waiting for something more? Wanting something more?  And what happens when what we are waiting for…depends on us?

Maybe acting as if we’re perfectly well in the face of that reality signals something far worse than boredom…Apathy?

What do you think?
 

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