A Spiritual Being Having a Human Experience

From the Archives: Winter 2007

By Charlene McIlnay

As I think back on my spiritual journey, I don’t specifically remember a “Come to Jesus” moment, but I do remember being very serious about joining the church when I was 12 years old. The church I grew up in was a Methodist church in Thomasville N.C. and I was an involved, integral part there. When I was 20 years old I married my high school sweetheart and moved to Raleigh, where I became involved in a church of a different denomination. True to my upbringing, I got very involved in church activities and eventually was elected to be an elder.

When I reflect back on that time in my life with that particular church, I feel now like I was under a veil of misinformation as far as the kingdom of God was concerned. Though I didn’t realize it then, I now feel that the traditions and formalities of that church drowned out the purity of the message of Christ. Sometimes when we would have elder’s meetings I would be astounded by some of the remarks and suggestions being made and would simply ask this question: “Have you ever prayed about that?” I know now that was a good question to ask, but for some reason it wasn’t received very well in those meetings.

During my years in Raleigh, God blessed me with a successful professional life and I eventually ended up in real estate, which is what paved the way for my moving to Boone in 1996. After all I had been through in Raleigh; it was exciting for me to get a fresh start in Boone. Included in that fresh start was the search for a new church family in Boone. In one of my first visits to a new church, the pastor preached from a passage of scripture that was the theme scripture of the church I had came from. The passage is found in 1 Corinthians 14:40 and talks about letting everything be done “decently and in order.” The church I came from stressed the decent and in order part, but this message was stressing the “let everything be done” part as well. Something registered with me as I realized that God was much bigger than my church traditions had let Him be. As a result of that I opened my heart and life to God in a whole new way and from 1996 until 1998, the Lord worked on me big time.

He taught me what it meant to truly follow His leadership in all things. During this time in my life I saw the license tag that says; “God is my co-pilot” and I remembered thinking that if He was my co-pilot, then I was in the wrong seat. I wanted him to be the pilot completely. He was teaching me how to keep my hands off the wheel and to simply let him have complete control. He opened my eyes to the kingdom of God and the whole spiritual realm in a way that has helped me through some tough times in my life.

I now feel that I am not just a human being who has some spiritual experience every now and then, but that I am a spiritual being having a human experience. As a result of all that God has taught me and brought me through I have come to expect him to make a way even when there doesn’t seem to be a way and I rest in that peace.