I normally go to the Gym on Monday and Wednesdays after work for a minor work out. The purpose of this is mainly just to fight off my ever growing belly. Sometimes this journey to the Gym is easier than others just by pure motivation. Yesterday, I really had little desire to go the gym, and I already new that a person I normally go with wasn’t going to make it. So my desire to go was really low. I decided that I just needed to “Man-Up” If I want to get rid of this gut I need to go to the gym. While en route to the gym I get in a car accident. Luckily no one was hurt, and I wasn’t cited or at fault. It does look like my little car is toast. But the reason I am posting this here is this, was my lack of desire to go to the gym a Spiritual Prompting to prevent this accident? If so, then had I been more in tune with the Spirit could this accident have been prevented?
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
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6 comments:
No. Your desire not to go to the gym was all you. I don't think that the spirit knew you were going to get into an accident.
Bad things happen to everyone, and the Lord won't protect us from all of it.
Furthermore, I don't think the Lord has a perfect foreknowledge of the future.
I have to admit, this is an area where saying I'm not an expert is a huge understatement. I never seem to be able to tell if it was me or the spirit. I will say this though. I don't believe that anytime something bad happens that we have ignored a prompting from the spirit.
It could be true that the spirit was telling you not to go to the gym. But, one might also argue that you needed to be in that accident because you can learn and grow from this experience. Maybe it was Satan trying to get you to not go to the gym, and it was the spirit that finally convinced you to go so that you could learn and grow from the experience. One might also argue (actually Ben did) that sometimes bad things just happen.
Now that I have gotten a few remarks, I will have to admit that this was a baited post. I will agree with Ben that I really think that the spirit isn't warning me not to go to the gym. Yet, there are countless stories about people feeling prompting to check things out (call a neighbor visit somebody) where they needed it.
My life seems to be filled with times I thought I was filling a prompting when it turned out to be nothing. Here is one story that I can tell, and I do apologize that I have to bring up that two year time when I wore the black tag. They where building and opening the second Chapel in the Country where I was serving. I happened to be serving in the area where this Chapel was located. We decided to place fliers on all the doors of the surrounding areas to invite people to an open house. Rather than knock on each door since there were so many apartments, we just placed flyer's on the door. Before starting to place these fliers I prayed diligently that if someone was home that I should talk to, than give me a prompting to knock on a door. While doing this task there were times I was certain that I received a prompting to knock on a door. So I would knock, and wait. I could see it in my mind a nice family that was ready to accept the gospel. I mean the back of the Ensign are full of stories like this. But every time I knocked NO ONE ANSWERED.
I will echo Robby’s voice and say, “I never seem to be able to tell if it was me or the spirit” but I would really like to be able to. But How??? This might have to go back to the whole grace for grace topic that we have discussed earlier. Even Line upon line, precept upon precept needs a starting point.
I wouldn't say that nothing happened and that nobody answered.
I think everyone has experiences like this. I don't know of an easy way to interpret the spirit besides trying to be in tune with it a lot.
As far as your missionary experience: the thing that did happen was that you demonstrated to the Lord faith that you would act on His promptings. (Maybe you were praying for something that wasn't there, so the Lord made use of the situation anyway.)
Perhaps later you received and acted on other promptings, and further light and truth?
I had just moved across town, but still had a responsibility to fulfill in the ward that still had my records. I was in a bad mood and didn't want to go to church. I waited until the last minute to leave the house and prepare for my obligation. Again, I was feeling that I really didn't want to go to church. Nonetheless, I got in my car and started driving. I was distracted and ornery. I looked at my church manual on the passenger seat only for a moment. When I looked up, there was a car stopped right in front of me. I couldn't stop, and I slammed into it. I didn't make it to church after all.
Were all these negative feelings promptings of the Spirit? No. Why would I be instructed not to go to church and fulfill my responsibilities? The reason I got into a car accident that day was because I was distracted and full of negative feelings. What could I have done to prevent the accident? I could have cleared my mind before I got in the car by praying and singing. Both has proven to soothe my soul in the past. Rather, I let the negative feelings overwhelm me and take away my inner peace.
I learned many valuable lessons as a result of that crash. Although I would have rather learned these lessons in a less stressful way, I am grateful for all that I gained.
As for how to discern if it is the Spirit, please reference this
article by President Faust as a starting point in your research. Seek for knowledge.
I came across this comic, I thought it was relevant to this Thread.
http://channelate.com/2008/02/24/a-bad-feeling/
I have to agree with what it is saying.
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