The truth is living as a human on self-will I wasn’t getting anywhere in life. Sure my life looked good from the outside, but I was dead on the inside. My life was lacking and it was my own self will that did me in. Fortunately, because I had a mustard seed of faith my body was primed for a spiritual awakening.
Following a life event, I placed the final nail in my coffin and then I woke up!
Another truth is that I didn’t even know what it was to be alive until I woke from the dead. Today there are many people in my life who don’t understand my transformation. In fact, I believe that there are many who think that when I went away to rehab I was indoctrinated into believing that their is a risen Christ.
They couldn’t be further from the truth. I wasn’t indoctrinated into Christianity, but I had a spiritual awakening. A life once void of answers now has become clear. Nobody can force Christianity on me. My Christian beliefs are a product of my heart.
The Loss of a Loved One to Their Beliefs
Not only did my spiritual awakening change the way I view life, but my husband and daughters had to welcome a new wife and mother to the family. They have to learn to accept my changes and embrace the new me.
It isn't just fifty-year-old women who can embrace a new lifestyle but people of all ages.
It is very common for Christian families to raise their children with their faith, send them off to college, and then lose them to a secular society.
I am one of those parents.
And far less common for the secular family to send their child off to college and lose their adult-child to Christianity.
This happened to a family member of a good friend.
In both instances it's best to seek understanding, allow their adult children to embrace their newfound life, and if need be pray that they return home.
It is far more common to send our adult children, raised in a Christian home, off to college to discover the children stray from their religious upbringing. What is uncommon and what I had trouble finding in a Google search is the opposite. There are very few examples of children raised in a secular home turning towards Christianity.
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Is the Loss from Indoctrination or A Spiritual Awakening?
Depending on who you ask, both words each might have a negative connotation. One has to do with the mind and the other the heart. Both are used to point blame for a loved one who might be searching. The truth is I have no idea if my friend’s, Jesus loving, family member has been indoctrinated by a church or has had a spiritual awakening.
This isn’t his story but mine. And from my experiences there is a clear distinction between indoctrination and a spiritual awakening.
A Loss Caused By Indoctrination
When our children stray from their upbringing it’s easy to blame someone else. We look towards the institution and want to think that our child has been brainwashed. After all we instilled good moral values so why would they turn their backs on the beliefs we parents instilled in them?
Over the years the word indoctrination has become bastardized. The concept of indoctrination originally referred to education, but after World War I, the term took on a pejorative meaning akin to brainwashing or propaganda. Indoctrination has to do with the mind and free-will through education.
If we succeed as parents there is no need to worry about our children’s fate. After all didn’t we raise them to independent thinkers? The goal should be to send our children off to use that free will, a gift from God.
Education and life experience is key to shaping our adult selves. So there is no need to fear of our children and their skulls full of mush to be corrupted by an institution. All it takes is a mustard seed of faith for a child to return to their Christian upbringing.
I should know it happened to me. Not because I was brainwashed, but because I was taught that I could do life my way. My life choices are what brought me to my spiritual awakening.
A Loss Caused By A Spiritual Awakening
Then we have the parents who are not spiritual and did not raise their children in an organized religion. When their children became believers and they lost them to Christ, they might feel they have failed as parents. Again, these same children are raised to be free thinkers so what would make them stray from their secular roots into an organized religion?
Life doesn’t come with answers and human beings have innate curiosities. The educators might tell us if we keep seeking, the answers will be found. It’s when we exhaust all possibilities that we turn to something greater than ourselves.
The human mind can only process so much and that is when the heart will intervene. Perhaps these children had a spiritual awakening. This is an internal process, where indoctrination is external.
The Many Types of Spiritual Awakenings
There is no formal definition of a spiritual awakening. And some scholars even suggest that a spiritual awakening shouldn’t be used in relation to a Christian transformation. From my experience that is furthest from the truth.
Alcoholics Anonymous shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms.
AI Generated Post states: A spiritual awakening is a state of heightened awareness and consciousness that can lead to a shift in perspective and worldview. It can also be called enlightenment, bliss, or discovering nirvana.
Collins Dictionary Spiritual means relating to people's thoughts and beliefs, rather than to their bodies and physical surroundings. The awakening of a feeling or realization is the start of it.
Biblically, a spiritual awakening is not a waking from spiritual sleep but a resurrection from spiritual death. All people are born in sin and are spiritually dead.
I have witnessed spiritual awakenings within the rooms of recovery, people from all walks of life have either a gradual or impactful experience that leads them to their higher power. It isn’t just hardcore drug users, people with a traumatic upbringing, but the young adult simply in search for something greater than themselves.
Triggers of a Spiritual Awakening
Surprisingly, a spiritual awakening can happen for many reasons, but it’s all about timing. Life-changing events can bring on the need for the transformation. It depends on the condition of your heart, if a spiritual awakening will occur following such an event.
The awakening can be sudden or gradual. If a person exposes themselves to religion they might naturally take to a rebirth, whereas mindfulness and meditation can activate a deeper conscious of awareness in the non-believer.
Gradually, I was aroused out of my slumber and abruptly woke up by a spiritual awakening.
My Experience: Spiritual Awakening Followed By Indoctrination
My spiritual awakening did not occur within the rooms of AA or recovery, but alone with only God present. I was desperate for redemption and it just happened to be a couple days following Easter Sunday, Christ resurrection.
I knew for quite sometime that I had a problem with alcohol, but I chose to not address it. March 17, 2021, I started to wake up but it wasn’t until April 6 that I had my spiritual death and discovered it wasn’t the alcohol but my pride that stood in the way of being the woman I am meant to be.
My indoctrination began after I accepted Jesus into my heart. I am choosing to learn more about Christ by reading the Bible. The education I am receiving is changing the way I view life and how I choose to treat others.
I am having a change of heart.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalms 51:10 ESV
Note:
This post was meant to be published last week, but after discernment I chose to rewrite it. My focus when sharing should point to me, not to someone else. My friend shared with me in confidence the struggles of her family with their son. Their struggles are none of my business but do resonate with many families. I hope by sharing this post it will help parents digest the struggles they have with their children making choices that don’t align with their upbringing.
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