Being "Slain in the Spirit"

 I had so much on my mind…. Not only was it my first semester of final exams during my Freshman year in college, but I also had instrumental juries on piano and trumpet to worry about. You see, I couldn’t decide which instrument to major in as a Music Therapy major, so I decided to do both. That meant I had extra practice time and a second jury in front of a bunch of music professors. How stressful!

I decided to go to a prayer meeting at the Pentecostal campus ministry I had become heavily involved in. I was hoping I would find a sense of peace. We all gathered in a circle and the Pastor came around and blessed each one of us as we prayed. I had never been “slain in the spirit” before and I desperately wanted to experience that feeling of peace, which I had heard about from others who had experienced it. When the pastor came to me, I felt his hand on my forehead and I let myself fall backward. Boy, was that a mistake! I almost got the wind knocked out of me! But I pretended to experience peace instead. I lay there on the ground and prayed and asked God to take away my worries and cares…. I was pretty upset. It wasn’t really working. I wasn’t feeling a sense of peace….

Back then I didn’t know why I didn’t experience peace. Was it because I was looking outward for a sense of fulfillment? There were times when I did experience a sense of “God’s peace,” but it was always fleeting. So, I would always be seeking it. Later in life, as I began to study Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies, I learned that if we turn inward, we can truly find peace within ourselves. We have all we need within us, for we are spiritual beings and “God”/Spirit is within us. Even a believer in Christianity can embrace this perspective. Look within…