SOMETIMES in the rush of the morning to get out the door, you miss your personal prayers… On this particular day, December 3, 2013 in ChongQing China, that happened. I went to work unfortified.
Having felt the need during the first hours of work to get direction and peace, I ended up visiting my prayer spot here on my lunch break...
And it felt absolutely needed, absolutely great and I thought I'd share that.
The way I feel each day is extremely important to me. I can't function well without a spiritual foundation of some sort. Some people need their caffeine, I need my spiritual reassurance, my strength.
On this particular day, I wanted to spend extra time with my family that morning. I coveted all the time I could covet to be with my family before and after work. Being in China and socially having only my own immediate family to speak my inner-most thoughts and conversations with, especially my wife, all other activities in China (such as at work) were mostly secular in nature. It was against the law to speak to any Chinese national about God, or spiritual things, so we didn't. As a result of that, for a foreigner, there really is therefore no talk of things of the heart, because of the law forbidding us, and there is no place of privacy either where I could have a prayer, where I could commune with my Heavenly Father in privacy.
Almost every single space of the huge 7 story office building where I worked was occupied by several people. It was crowded with several hundreds of employees. You worked in a small cubicle space, very small, and you were watched and heard, or rather, all people in the office are literally watched and heard by each other as a default. This is because the office was encouraged to be interactive. There was no quiet private place to retreat to in order to ponder or think. You had to go outside the building.
On this day, I needed inner peace and could not obtain it. I needed to pray the feelings of my heart, and could not do it.
SO I decided that rather than have a lunch, I would go downstairs from our 3rd floor and go outside instead, head towards the small mountain park which had pedestrian stairs and trails in it.
I went to the top.
There were some people there, also walking around.
SO I kept going, and going, until I came to a semi-private forested area that was off the beaten trails and stairway pathways. I bowed my head in prayer and spoke the feelings of my heart. As I did so, I could feel that most welcome peaceful and assuring feeling I get from God. It strengthened me, and spiritually replenished me. For those who don't pray there is no understanding of why this is so important to a person who does pray. It is because once you have tasted of the joy and happiness that comes from prayer, you develop a need to STAY happy, and prayer is the very key to making this possible, almost on an instant basis. When stress or worry knocks or presses at your door, you can find a quiet and secret place to pray. What I found out was that in China, these kind of places are rare, especially in a huge city like Chongqing where the space is maximized for development, and skyscrapers abound.
That inner peace, I believe is the gift of the Holy Ghost, so sometimes I have even skipped lunch for a true break, and have returned to work feeling recharged, like I did this day!
D&C 6:14
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, blessed art thou for what thou hast done; for thou hast inquired of me, and behold, as often as thou hast inquired thou hast received instruction of my Spirit. If it had not been so, thou wouldst not have come to the place where thou art at this time.
Applicable Lesson from the Book of Mormon on this: Pray Often in the Mountains...
And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things.
Comments:
SRA I need this. I'm gonna find me a prayer spot. love you
GJ We all need it Bear. For me, I go crazy when I feel like I am being rushed and pressured and have work to do but don't have my bearings. I don't want to be a ship without a rudder, and that rudder is the Holy Ghost. Here's one. The Lord said to me once, love your kids, don't lecture your kids, they need your love. And of course I feel the Spirit when he tells me that. So I will try to be less efficient and more understanding
ME Wow. A sacred grove in China. How beautiful.
GR I'm going to use this in my lesson today, Grant.
GJ Thanks for popping this thing up again on my timeline GR. I need to be reminded of the information I got there, Less lectures and more love, Which means more patience
Adapted from a BLOG Posted 3rd December 2013 by Grant Johnson
Location: Yubei, Chongqing, China
Labels: God inner peace inspiration Jesus Christ Mountain peace ponder Prayer revelation Spirit Trails