Religious Ecstasy

Religious Ecstasy

 

As I type, my heart is thumping and my hands are shaking. I am, metaphorically speaking, handling fire. I am treading on territory usually reserved for academics and sceptics, but I am simply a life-long Christian trying to determine the legitimacy of my own experience. I am not questioning the reality; I have seen and felt whereof I speak. I am questioning the provenance.

 

Every human being, given an effective stimulus, can and will experience transcendence. The reality of the experience is not determined by its being right or wrong, good or evil, holy or unholy. For example: electrical stimulation of different areas of the brain can produce physical pleasure, religious euphoria, or an emotional “high.” The stimulus is artificial, but, to the subject, the result, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional, is real.
 

In certain situations, I have been overcome by emotion. Feelings can cause me pain, pleasure, extreme empathy, or physical collapse. I can lapse into incoherence.

 

It would be very easy for me to decide that my overwhelming desires and emotions are God given and holy. But when is that true?

 

God, give me wisdom. Take my weak and weary heart and make it strong and pure.

 

Psalm 37:4-6

Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him and he will do this:

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
    your vindication like the noonday sun.

Wisdom, Love and Fear

"'Charles Williams gave his first lecture at the Divinity School at Oxford on this day in 1940; he spoke on Milton.'
“'I have at last, if only for once, seen a university doing what it was founded to do: teaching wisdom.' C. S. Lewis, describing the second Williams lecture to Warren Lewis." Around the Year with C. S. Lewis and Friends, compiled by Kathryn Lindskoog

“The end of all learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love and imitate Him.”
― John Milton

Proverbs 9:10-12
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
For through wisdom your days will be many,
and years will be added to your life.
If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you;
if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.

Amazing Grace
‘Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear,
And Grace that fear relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear,
The hour I first believed.
 -- John Newton

I have nothing to add.