Heading West

As I struggled with my decision to pursue a relationship with God, I at times felt guilty as if I were rebelling against the mormon church, and most certainly I was. The mormon church likes to tell it's members to draw near to God, to pray and establish a relationship with Him, but what ever a person does, never, never tell them that God answered any prayers. Unless of course if you tell the church leaders that God said to worship the leaders, then they may allow it. Anyway, I was young and foolish, and I let it slip a couple of times that I was praying and getting answers. Nothing dramatic. I was not seeing angels, or parting the ocean, or raising the dead, but I did begin to experience simple answers. Like for example, one time I borrowed a dog from my granddad to bring home to play with. Well, we were out in the field playing and all of a sudden, my granddad's dog ran off. I tried calling it and pleading with it to come back, but it had different ideas. I was terrified that I would lose my granddad's dog and hated the thought of having to tell him that I lost his dog. So I did the only thing I could think of, I got down on my knees, and with tears in my eyes, I prayed for help. And a little miracle happened, when I openned my eyes, there was the dog licking my face. I have no idea how the dog got back so fast, it had been so far away, but here it was. I know it was not a miracle to change the world, but it was wonderful to me. But even though this answer and other answers were very special to me, I was not treated well for speaking of them to mormons. I can only guess that perhaps people only liked to believe in a form of godliness, and really did not want to actually have God interfere with their lives. Because if He could actually answer some of the prayers of a boy from a red-neck upbringing, and not be giving them the same kind of answers, then they could no longer believe that they were special, or God's chosen people, or perhaps they would have to think that they were not as good as they thought they were. Anyway, my foolishness attracted a great deal of negative attention.

I had many such answers to my prayers and even some answers to phylisophical prayers. Like asking for direction in my life and then openning the scriptures, and almost having them fall open, and finding an amazing word for word direction to answer my questions. I continued to develop listening for answers and the promptings of the spirit of God, and then one day after praying, I began to make arrangements to head west. I was not certain where I would go, just west to the mountains.

I did not have much money at the time, so I had to work a bit and hitch-hike a bit and try to negotiate my way west. It was an interesting experience. There were many times when I was tired of walking and prayed for a ride, and almost immediately someone was there to help. There was another time when I was tired of eating the dried camp food that I had in my bag and so I asked for something better, and wouldn't you know it someone showed up at my little campsite and invited me over to supper, and another person brought me some leftovers, and I ended up with far more than I could eat. That trip west was a faith building experience, of which I am always greatful. Now that is not to say that I did not have challenges on that trip. There were many challenges, and I had to deal with many unfortunate experiences, and many bad people. I met some very nice people on that trip too. People who, even though were a different religion than I was, were very kind to me, and obviously had a great relationship with God too. That was when I began to understand that it is not the religion that a person belongs to, but the individual's relationship with the Lord. After all, if God could prompt them to answer my prayer, and they follow His directions, how could I possibly say that their religion is wrong? If they could listen to direction from God to offer me support or kindness, then certainly they could follow His advice to join a different religion, if that was what He wanted. So that certainly puts a damper on those "chosen people" mentality religions. In the New Testament, Christ had to put up with elitists too, and He told them straight out, that whoever does the will of the Father is the ones who are his children. But I am certain that there are many who will disagree with Christ, and say that their religion is the only way.