Getting High This Summer?

Do you plan on getting high this summer?

My question actually has to do with God and your spiritual life, though if you plan on doing drugs this summer, we need to talk…seriously…send me an email, OK?

I want to repeat the question.  Do you plan on getting high - on God - this summer?

The experience of getting “high on God” or experiencing a ‘spiritual high’ is a common experience for those who are trying to grow closer to God, and if you are reading this, I suspect you know what I mean.  Someone attends a retreat like a Luke 18, Timothy 4, Steubenville, Christpower, Project Life, ACTS, CHRP, or even a REAP retreat, and experiences God’s love in a fresh and exciting way.  They feel “high” on life, love, and God.  Everything is new, everything is different, and everything is exciting.  I’m not gonna lie; I've had the feeling, and it is an awesome feeling indeed.

But then what happens?  Usually, it last for a while, and then we go back to the ‘real world’ and ‘real life’ and it fades away, leaving us empty and wanting more, right?  So, what should we do about the experience of a ‘spiritual high’?

Here’s my advice

1)      Thank God for the experience.

2)      Prayerfully share that experience with other people.  Other people want to, and even need to hear our stories.

3)      Stay open to other experiences of Jesus by going places – like church, youth group, prayer group, and other retreats – where we can have more experiences.  I am convinced that God loves to show us His love.

4)      Know that the longing for more is a gift intended to motivate us to stay connected to God, especially through prayer, Scripture, sacraments, and community - if possible the same community with whom we had that spiritual experience.

5)      Don’t depend on these experiences.  Though ‘spiritual highs’ are gifts, they are not ultimately what the spiritual life is all about – the spiritual life is about an ever-deepening relationship with Jesus.

6)      Know that God is with you – even if you never experience even one spiritual high your whole life long!  Recent revelations about the life of Mother Teresa – the greatest saint of our century, in my opinion – reveal that for most of her life she did not feel God’s presence at all.  Spend some time reflecting on that fact, and it will rock your world.

I love what my favorite author, C.S. Lewis, has to say about the experience of a ‘spiritual high’:

All our prayers are being answered, and I thank God for it.  The only (possibly, not necessarily) unfavorable symptom is that you are just a trifle too excited.  It is quite right that you should feel that "something terrific" has happened to you...

Accept these sensations with thankfulness as birthday cards from God, but remember that they are only greetings, not the real gift. I mean that it is not the sensations that are the real thing.  The real thing is the gift of the Holy Spirit which can't usually be - perhaps not ever - experienced as a sensation or an emotion.  The sensations are merely the response of the nervous system.  Don't depend on them.  Otherwise when they go and you are once more emotionally flat (as you certainly will be quite soon), you might think that the real thing had gone too.  But it won't.  It will be there when you can't feel it.  Maybe even most operative when you can feel it least.

Don't imagine it is all "going to be an exciting adventure from now on".  It won't.  Excitement, of whatever sort, never lasts.  This is the push to start you off on your first bicycle:  you'll be left to lots of dogged pedaling later on.  And no need to feel depressed about it either.  It will be good for your spiritual leg muscles.  So enjoy the push while it lasts, but enjoy it as a treat, not as something normal.

I’d like to close by sharing with you something I learned while working at my first youth ministry job, from my good friend Dolores.  She was much older and far wiser than me, and in my eyes she was a spiritual giant; as a matter of fact, she still is, and bigger than ever - since she lives in Heaven now.  She told me something that I have never forgotten: 

When we are young, our spiritual life can be like a rollercoaster – exciting, thrilling, and a wild ride with a lot of ups and downs.  However, as we mature, our goal is actually to simply walk peacefully, as through a quiet meadow, with our close friend Jesus.

Any experience of a ‘spiritual high’, therefore, is to draw us closer to the One who is actually the MOST HIGH, so that we can be with Him forever.