Miracle Not Understood???

[Guest Mores]

Have you had some sort of miracle happen to you but you had no idea what it was for?  It seemed to have no significance or meaning.  But it was something completely inexplicable by conventional means.  It was something that can only be explained as "miraculous".  And it happened at the temple -- if that's supposed to mean anything.  But when all was said and done, I have no idea what it was supposed to mean for me or why it happened.

It didn't actually change my life. I received neither blessing nor curse.  I didn't learn anything.  It didn't really inspire me.  No truths were revealed.  No guidance given.  No protection received.  It was just a ... "thing".  And what I thought it was about was simply not correct -- I checked.  I've prayed about it and... nothing.  So, I'm left wondering... what the heck?  

Anyone else have anything like that happen?  I'm not asking for anyone to interpret what happened to me.  I'm just wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences of a miraculous nature that didn't seem to "do" anything.

[dprh]

I don't recall anything like that in my life.

Without more details (and I can understand that you don't want to share much of such an experience), it's hard to think of a reason.  The one thought I have is, if there was another person involved, or witnessed it, that it was for that person and not for you?

[Anddenex]

2 hours ago, Mores said:

It didn't actually change my life. I received neither blessing nor curse.  I didn't learn anything.  It didn't really inspire me.  No truths were revealed.  No guidance given.  No protection received.  It was just a ... "thing".  And what I thought it was about was simply not correct -- I checked.  I've prayed about it and... nothing.  So, I'm left wondering... what the heck? 

Without knowing more details (and I agree with @dprh I understand why full details aren't provided) I would be unable to confirm or deny if I have had such an experience. As of right now, all the miracles in my life have taught me something, blessed my life, even if small.

In truth, mho, the quoted statement above leads me to believe this wasn't a miracle. I don't know of any support that would confirm this statement in relation to miracles. Faith precedes miracles, which ultimately means there is impact in our life (teaching, learning, inspired, knowledge). So, I have a hard time accepting it was a miracle with limited details.

[estradling75]

While I can't say I have had such an experience...  I think Mormon did

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/w-of-m/1?lang=eng

Maybe it is as others have speculated.. it was for others..  Or maybe it was as what happened to Mormon in that the Lord is preparing for the future in which the wisdom will be understood then

[Fether]

Perhaps the Lord was just doing something for a purpose other than you, and you just happened to witness it? Or maybe it was just a reminder that he is there?

Or maybe perhaps this is one of those coincidences?

[Traveler]

20 hours ago, Mores said:

Have you had some sort of miracle happen to you but you had no idea what it was for?  It seemed to have no significance or meaning.  But it was something completely inexplicable by conventional means.  It was something that can only be explained as "miraculous".  And it happened at the temple -- if that's supposed to mean anything.  But when all was said and done, I have no idea what it was supposed to mean for me or why it happened.

It didn't actually change my life. I received neither blessing nor curse.  I didn't learn anything.  It didn't really inspire me.  No truths were revealed.  No guidance given.  No protection received.  It was just a ... "thing".  And what I thought it was about was simply not correct -- I checked.  I've prayed about it and... nothing.  So, I'm left wondering... what the heck?  

Anyone else have anything like that happen?  I'm not asking for anyone to interpret what happened to me.  I'm just wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences of a miraculous nature that didn't seem to "do" anything.

I have had a few and the only thing that seems to have any relevance to their occurrence is how often and regularly I am visiting the temple.

 

The Traveler

[NeuroTypical]

20 hours ago, Mores said:

Have you had some sort of miracle happen to you but you had no idea what it was for?

Absolutely - in the workplace in 2001.  I had a bad boss.  We'd all sit around and talk about how bad a boss she was.  I was sitting at my desk one day, thinking "everyone's talking about her, but nobody's talking to her", and had one of the more powerful and clear spiritual impressions I've ever had, second only to the witness I received that is the foundation of my testimony.

The obvious prompting was to go talk to her about the issues I/we had with her.   My first thought was "aw crap!  What a lousy time to feel the spirit!".    The spiritual impression continued.  Resigned to my fate, I slowly and reluctantly stood up and started walking towards her desk.   I was hoping I'd have one of those deals where you stand up fast and almost pass out - I could discount my spiritual impression as just hunger pains or passing lethargy or something.  But as I stood, I clearly, powerfully, unambiguously felt and invisible finger pull me up out of my chair by my back belt loop.  Then, as I took a hesitant and begrudging step forward, the pressure became a hand on my back, literally propelled me forward.  In all the spiritual experiences before or since, I've never felt an actual physical presence acting on me, but it happened then.  With my last hope of talking myself out of the notion that this conversation was God's will, I trudged to her desk.  

I'd like to say I have the faintest clue what that conversation accomplished, but to this day I have no idea.  She was there, her back to me, pounding on her keyboard, no doubt banging out an angry email to someone.  I knocked on the cube wall, she spun around, spitting out nails and breathing out flames through her nose, and said "what?"  (I may be embellishing a bit, but not much.)  I then had the conversation the Lord required I have.  It was bumbling and confusing and awkward.  She was defensive and demanded specific actionable examples, which I tried to provide.  The conversation did not end on a positive note.  She went back to her keyboard pounding and I returned to my desk.

I went back to work, and the difficult situation continued.  6 months later, the company was going bust and manager, me, and the rest of the team all got laid off.  I don't have the faintest clue why the Lord wanted us to go through that embarrassingly awkward and unproductive conversation, but there's absolutely no doubt in my mind He did, and I did my part.  Perhaps there was some hidden impact in her.  Perhaps me telling the story decades years later accomplishes the designs of the Lord.  I certainly got nothing out of it, did no growing, changed no opinion.  But I'm absolutely unable to 2nd guess the reality of the almost overpowering quiet spiritual prompting and gentle almost-physical propelling me up and forward. 

Edited December 5, 2019 by NeuroTypical

[Guest Mores]

5 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

I don't have the faintest clue why the Lord wanted us to go through that embarrassingly awkward and unproductive conversation, but there's absolutely no doubt in my mind He did, and I did my part.  Perhaps there was some hidden impact in her.  Perhaps me telling the story decades years later accomplishes the designs of the Lord.  I certainly got nothing out of it, did no growing, changed no opinion.  But I'm absolutely unable to 2nd guess the reality of the almost overpowering quiet spiritual prompting and gentle almost-physical propelling me up and forward. 

With sincerity, thank you for sharing that.

I see that you were definitely given directions to do something.  And you did it.  I've had that happen as well.  And I also saw no visible effects from such actions. But I had to assume that it was to 

A) have some future effect that I was not going to witness first hand.
B) test me in my obedience.

It seems that this could be said of you and your experience.

But this ... thing that happened... it didn't do anything.  I felt no instruction, direction, motivation, inspiration to change anything.  And since it effected no one but me, it must be something meant to change me.  I suppose I could say that it happened because I'm supposed to post this thread.  But honestly, I'm not feelin' it.

I realize it is difficult for others to truly comment since I haven't given details.  But, this was more than an "impression".  It was the type of stuff you read about in the Bible.  It's ok if I just go on not knowing.  But I was just wondering.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Mores

[anatess2]

This is probably completely off-base and not even related to what you're talking about.  I'll share it anyway in case it has a bit of merit to the conversation.

There was that time when my dad took all of his kids late at night to see the miracle of Santo Nino.  It was an image of Santo Nino formed by dust particles on a lighted business sign.  So many people went to see the thing, I was very little so I was in danger of being crushed so we only saw the image made of dust for a few seconds before my dad took us out of there.  For my parents, it was such a big deal that they saw a miracle even if the Pope hasn't declared it as such.  For me, I was thinking of scientific phenomena that could have caused dust particles to look like the Santo Nino.  

I also have an aunt that has a miraculous statue of the Blessed Mary from Lourdes.  She bought that statue on a pilgrimage in Lourdes, France where Mary was believed to have appeared to a 14-year-old girl.  Because of the size of the statue that couldn't fit in her luggage, she had to carry it in her arms all the way to the USA.  She put the statue on an altar in her living room and she saw the statue cry and the smell of roses permeated the air.  Since then, Marian pilgrims from all over the world go to her house to pay homage to Mary.  I stayed at her house for a while and I would join the prayers and the masses, the whole while staring at the statue thinking of scientific or natural phenomena that could have caused tears to fall down the eyes.

So there's all these people who see miracles and are very deeply spiritually inspired by it - it's like their spiritual batteries get charged to the max through the experience.  Then there's me who think these miracles are just things science hasn't managed to explain yet.  I have tons of deeply spiritual experiences - like when I got baptized for example - that I call miracles (that some who don't feel it as spiritual may see as coincidences).  But nothing like actual physical phenomena like seeing a vision.  I would think if I experience a miracle it would be a very spiritually moving experience that charges my spiritual batteries.  If it's not, then maybe it's just something science hasn't explained to me yet.

But that's just me.

[Guest Mores]

20 hours ago, anatess2 said:

This is probably completely off-base and not even related to what you're talking about.  I'll share it anyway in case it has a bit of merit to the conversation...

Envision Balaam riding his ass and it talks to him.  One would think that Balaam would stop to think,"Hey my ass is talking! What the heck!?!?  That's got to be a miracle.  If it is miraculous, God want's to tell me something."  But no.  He gets mad at the ass because it was misbehaving (according to his estimation).

Well, I'm taking this thing as a miracle.  And I've got to wonder.  What the heck?!?!  That's got to be a miracle.  If it is miraculous, God wants to tell me something.  So, I sit and wonder.

"Something science hasn't explained yet"  vs. "miracle".  And the difference is?  Just because science has yet to explain how an ass can speak to a human doesn't mean it is something we can just dismiss.  Instead, it is something that just begs for more investigation.

[anatess2]

On 12/7/2019 at 7:20 AM, Mores said:

"Something science hasn't explained yet"  vs. "miracle".  And the difference is?  Just because science has yet to explain how an ass can speak to a human doesn't mean it is something we can just dismiss.  Instead, it is something that just begs for more investigation.

What I meant by this is - something that is completely ordinary in science but I'm not that knowledgeable enough to understand... like a ball put on a road that rolls uphill - if I didn't know about the perspective of horizons I'd think that was a miracle, whereas somebody who understands horizons would think it completely ordinary.  Make sense?

[NeuroTypical]

The humans started with "It was a miracle.  These aren't your things to understand.  Thinking is too close to questioning.  You need to be corrected, perhaps a bloodletting."

Now we're all like "Miracles are just things science hasn't explained yet."

I think that's a move in the right direction.

[Guest Mores]

22 hours ago, anatess2 said:

What I meant by this is - something that is completely ordinary in science but I'm not that knowledgeable enough to understand... like a ball put on a road that rolls uphill - if I didn't know about the perspective of horizons I'd think that was a miracle, whereas somebody who understands horizons would think it completely ordinary.  Make sense?

Forgive me if this sounds like a criticism.  I don't intend it to be.  I honestly don't understand where you're trying to go with this.  You're describing an optical illusion.  An ILLUSION.  i.e. it isn't really doing what you think it's doing.  Go back to Balaam.  Was opening the ass's mouth a miracle or not?

[anatess2]

17 minutes ago, Mores said:

Forgive me if this sounds like a criticism.  I don't intend it to be.  I honestly don't understand where you're trying to go with this.  You're describing an optical illusion.  An ILLUSION.  i.e. it isn't really doing what you think it's doing.  Go back to Balaam.  Was opening the ass's mouth a miracle or not?

It's a miracle because we have the full context of the situation understood through the Biblical account.  If I do not have the full context of the situation, I wouldn't be able to tell if it is a miracle or an illusion.  The first tell for me to not think it is a miracle is - it has no purpose.

[Guest Mores]

1 minute ago, anatess2 said:

It's a miracle because we have the full context of the situation understood through the Biblical account.  If I do not have the full context of the situation, I wouldn't be able to tell if it is a miracle or an illusion.  The first tell for me to not think it is a miracle is - it has no purpose.

I can't argue with the last sentence.  That's what's bugging me about this.  It was no illusion.  I guarantee.  Of course, you have no way of knowing that.  Thus I'm left in this conundrum.

[laronius]

I have received impressions before about things that would shortly happen and they did but they were things that in and of themselves were very minor and had no benefit to them other than learning how the Spirit works with me. I think we underestimate how much the Lord is willing to take us into his confidence in important matters so he uses the less important matters to try to train us up.

[Guest Mores]

10 minutes ago, laronius said:

I have received impressions before about things that would shortly happen and they did but they were things that in and of themselves were very minor and had no benefit to them other than learning how the Spirit works with me. I think we underestimate how much the Lord is willing to take us into his confidence in important matters so he uses the less important matters to try to train us up.

Interesting.  I hadn't considered that.  But I suppose that could apply to my situation.  Thanks for the thought.

[dprh]

Maybe the reason was to prompt you to post your question here and to get one or more forum members to think and reflect about miracles in their life...

Thank you.