Faith...Can ya feel it?

Hmmm. A feeling faith. What do you think?

I cannot count the number of times I have heard people say, "You know, faith is not what you feel, it is what you believe." The suggestion in this statement is that what we feel is not to be trusted, while what we think/believe is to be trusted. As a psychologist, I can tell you people think a lot of things that are just plain not true. So, thinking our brains are somehow less impacted by the fall is poor theology. But in the West, we have elevated the mind to a point where we do tend to trust our minds more than our feelings. And I am not sure about the wisdom of that.

John Wesley may have had a similar conviction. Wesley believed that we should feel our faith. Faith is not just a mental assent or a cognition--faith should be experienced...i.e., FELT. A historian, Amanda Porterfield writes about Wesley's conviction:

“Wesley’s investment in religious experience complemented this interest in health and healing. His   understanding of religious conversion affirmed the presence of bodily sensation in that spiritual transformation…Wesley expected grace to stimulate feeling…In spite of his dectractors, Wesley’s openness to bodily sensation as a natural part of Christian life proved enormously popular both in Britain and in North America. His promotion of religious experience and encouragement of sensory and emotional feeling as part of that experience contributed to revivals on both sides of the Atlantic. By the 19^th century, these revivals made the Methodist church the fastest growing denomination in North America.”  p.164-65  Healing in the History of Christianity (2005).

Why was his view so embraced by the people? BECAUSE PEOPLE FEEL! :) In our everyday lives, we experience feelings and sensations. Why should we expect our faith to be any different? Every other relationship in this world causes us to feel things...we have feelings about our pets, homes, spouses, loved ones, children, etc...and Evangelical Christianity, by definition cultivates a personal relationship with God. Should we not realize that our feelings are just as much a part of our faith as our beliefs? I believe and feel (with great conviction) the answer is a resounding YES.

What this all has to do with Bodywork is that one of the goals of bodywork is to help people get in touch with how they feel. In general, people's awareness of their feelings increases as they receive bodywork. Some come in with locked muscles so tight--they don't feel anything in an area and usually they also can't move it. Get some focused bodywork and I will make a bet that not only can they start to feel--but the first thing they feel is pain. But the good thing is they usually can also start to move. And better yet--after it loosens up--they don't feel the pain, they begin to feel the good!

Back to faith. I think this is why people are seeking "spiritual experiences." Whether it be in a church, weekend retreat, chanting, yoga, etc....people want to feel their faith--we intuitively know that faith should be an Experience..an Encounter. We should feel something. Just believing is not enough. We want to know with our hearts not just our heads. And part of bodywork--and faith--is awakening to the feeling of the movement of the Spirit.

So...Faith...Can ya feel it?

Growing Pains...OUCH!

Well, I have been having a most interesting experience the last three weeks. My shoulders have been in quite a bit of pain. At first....I thought it was that one night I spent an hour reading in bed (yeah...a no-no for posture.) Next morning--wow was my left shoulder torqued! Things like that usually wear off over the day. Next morning--after a bad night's sleep--still problematic. Got some bodywork done...still hurting. Hmmm. What could this be?

It has slowly been dawning on me that this new discomfort might just be growing pains. WHAT? You say to yourself...doesn't that stop in early adulthood? Well--I thought so too. However, the fact is over our lifespan, our body changes in relation to the tasks we engage in. So, as I reflected on my past weeks, I realized I have been doing more bodywork sessions than when I first started (good news) but I didn't expect my musculature to be so effected. WRONG! It is! I have found my upper arm strength increasing, my hand grip strength is now crazy strong, and my shoulders are broadening (hence the pain).

My posture is changing too. I used to stand out of habit at times with my arms crossed. Can't do that anymore for longer than 5 minutes or my shoulders hurt. What is so interesting to me about this is about 5 months ago I began to pray that God would open me up to become a more loving, caring, non-judgmental presence to all those around me. (For those who have studied eastern modalities of bodywork/energy work, it is regarding the heart chakra). Well, it is happening. I just didn't think it all through to the logical embodied result. My posture is actually opening up to others. Wow. Be warned! Be careful what you pray for....God just might answer it! Be ready to embrace your growing pains!

The Body, Advent, and Incarnation

Of course, I had to write another Advent reflection, because I came across something really cool in Agnes Sanford's*  The Healing Light last week. She writes this (in 1947 no less!):
   
   "Most people are ashamed today to offer themselves to God, both soul and body. They feel he has no use for their bodies, forgetting the infinite pains that He took to incarnate himself within the veil of flesh so that he might from that time forth enter into all of humanity. Many people of today are unwilling to recognize the operation of a spiritual power through the being (body) of man...." p.82

I don't think we have a full understanding of what it means for our whole person, BODY, soul, and spirit--to be filled with the power of God. I think if we did, it might literally blow our circuits--or at least our socks off! But in this short excerpt, Agnes is suggesting that indeed we can know what it is like to experience God's presence in our body--not just our mind and spirit. This whole experience of God is what the mystics talk about--experiencing God--not just knowing him with our mind/beliefs/creeds, but actually have God's Spirit so fill us, that it registers in our body. We FEEL his presence--and in fact, when God' power flows through us, it often results in healing--the body being restored to wholeness. This is part of the redemption of our body, brought about by the fact of Christ Jesus coming in the flesh--the Incarnation.

A Blessed Advent Indeed.

*For those of you who have never heard of Agnes, she was a fascinating woman who had the gift of healing. She was born in China, the daughter of missionary parents, who later in life came to the United States, and married an Anglican priest.